WILLIAM McKINLEY 




IUSE FEB 22 I90I 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 



HIS LIFE AND WORK 



,t;»i> 



BY 



CHARLES H. GROSVENOR 



IT IS GOD'S WAT 



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THE CONTINENTAL ASSEMBLY 
WASHINGTON, D. C, 

1 90 1 






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5? 
JpUz# 1908 



"5- 



'92 






Copyright, 1901, by 

Tl||" CONTINENTAL ASSEMBLY 

m 

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WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Trow Directory 

Printing *5^ Bookbinding Company 

New York 



Contents 



Author's Eemarks 7 

William McKinley : His Life and Work ... 9 

Editoruls from Representative Newspapers . . . 21 

Tributes from Governors of States . . . .127 

Address of Governor George K. Nash at the McKinley 
Memorial Meeting of the Franklin County Bar . 166 

President McKinley's Last Speech .... 168 

The Story of President McKinley's Boyhood by His 

Mother 175 

Prayer for President McKinley in the Rotunda of 
the Capitol Building, Washington, D. C, by Rev. 
Dr. Henry R. Naylor 180 

Ex-President Cleveland's Eulogy, Delivered Before the 
Faculty and Students of Princeton University . 18'2 

Some Time We'll Understand 181 

Last Words of Famous Men and Women . . . 185 



The late President McKinley's physician, Dr. Kixey, states that 
after his distinguished patient could no longer speak in audible 
words he could distinguish his lips uttering in whispers the words 
of the following hymn, " Nearer, My God, to Thee ": 



Nearer, my God, to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee, 
E'en though it be a cross, 

That raiseth me; 
Still all my song shall be, 
Nearer, my God, to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee. 

Though like a wanderer, 

Weary and lone, 
Darkness comes over me, 

My rest a stone; 
Yet in my dreams I'd be 
Nearer, my God, to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee. 



There let my way appear 

Steps unto heaven; 
All that Thou sendest ms 

In mercy given; 
Angels to beckon me 
Nearer, my God, to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee. 

Then with my waking thoughts 
Bright with Thy praise. 

Out of my stony griefs 
Altars I'll raise; 

So by my woes to be 

Nearer, my God, to Thee, 
Nearer to Thee. 



Or if on joyful wing, 

( 'leaving the sky, 
Sun, moon, and stars forgot, 

Upward I fly, 
Still all my song shall be 
Nearer, my God, to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee. 



The following was a favorite hymn of the late President 
McKinley, " Lead, Kindly Light ": 

Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, 

Lead Thou me on! 
The night is dark, and I am far from home, 

Lead Thou me on! 
Keep Thou my feet! I do not ask to see 
The distant scene ; one step enough for me. 

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou 

Shouldst lead me on; 
I loved to choose and see my path ; but now 

Lead Thou me on! 
I loved the garish day; and, spite of fears, 
Pride ruled my will : remember not past years. 

So long Thy power has blest me, sure it still 

Will lead me on 
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till 

The night is gone; 
And with the morn those angel faces smile, 
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile. 



^illtam j&tMnlty 



r 



By the President of the United States of America. 

A PROCLAMATION. 

A terrible bereavement has befallen our people The Pr«.J 
of the United States has hpen c-- u j t JCO P le - i ne President 

main forever . precious Litage of oor pTo'pie' " ^ d "' h »'" - 

which the body of ,he de,T Pr I 7 Sd, ' ! '', 1 S t P, T ber '9. "" %» 
lattaMhoe as a dav „f m a """ be laid in i,s '»» «"",!, 

subm ISSIO n to the will of Almiohrv r„A a down ,n 

•he homage of I„ re ,°d reve t„ L ' ?Z " "' « , "'" h ™ 
whose deafh has smitten S^Z^LSZ^ ^ P " !i<fc "'' 

sea, JSSKtt t'o f^P" " "' ^ *"' ""» d "» 

dene, of the United States, the one hundred ,„d ^^A^" 
Bv the President: THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

JOHN HAY, Secretary of State. (i "'' 



AUTHOR'S REMARKS 

IT is a hard task to write a biographical sketch 
of a living friend. It is a harder task to write 
of William McKinley. I knew him for twenty- 
five years. I was first attracted to his great char- 
acteristics as to no other rising public man. I 
came to know him well. I came to love him 
dearly. I do not hesitate to use the words " I 
loved him," but I cannot write as I would wish to 
now of William McKinley dead. 

During last winter, under a contract which I made, 
I wrote sketches of all the Presidents of the United 
States for a publication not yet quite ready to be 
presented to the public. That book will make its 
appearance in due time and will be a very attrac- 
tive publication, in my judgment, even aside from 
the sketches which it gave me so much pleasure to 
write. 

This little volume is intended to convey to the 
public, at little expense, some of the utterances of 
the great men of the country and of the great edi- 
tors of the country who have spoken and written 
in honor of McKinley. The editorials have been 
selected from the great dailies, and afford examples 
of the finest and purest literature. And there are 

7 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

selections from the eulogies by the governors of 

States. 

I have no financial interest in the publication of 
this book or the other to which I have referred, and 
have made no demand upon the publishers for any 
profit on the sale of this little volume. It has, 
however, been required by me that a liberal portion 
of the gross receipts of this volume shall be con- 
tributed to the building of a splendid monument to 
the memory of William McKinley. That is, it shall 
be a contribution to the enterprise of others, and 
not as an independent monument. The fund thus 
raised will be controlled and disposed of by myself 
in the interest aforesaid, and shall be sacredly used 
for that purpose and for that purpose alone. 

No other publisher has had any authority to use 
my name in connection with any other publication. 

No mention will be made in this book of the 
creature who has brought mourning into every 
household of this broad laud, and it will be time 
enough in the future to devote the best energies and 
the best intelligence of the best men of the United 
States to ward off and prevent a recurrence of the 
horrors of the past thirty days. 




Washington, D. C, September 21, 1901. 




WILLIAM McKINLEY 

His Life & Work 



ILLIAM McKINLEY was the twenty- 
fourth person who held the office of 
President of the United States. Grover 
Cleveland was twice elected, with an interval 
between his first and second administrations, and so 
by some McKinley is counted the twenty-fifth 
President, but if that rule obtained there would be 
duplication of all the Presidents who have held the 
office twice. It is true that Mr. Cleveland was 
elected to a second term in a manner widely 
different from the others who have held the office 
more than one term, for he was defeated for his 
second term, in fact, and was renominated and 
re-elected, but I have chosen to call Mr. McKinley 
the twenty -fourth President of the United States. 

William McKinley was born on the 29th day of 
January, 1843, at Niles, in Trumbull County, Ohio, 
in the Congressional District now represented by 
Hon. Charles Dick. The ancestors of McKinley on 
the paternal side were Scotch-Irish immigrants 
from Scotland and became residents of Pennsyl- 
vania. His great-grandfather served in the Revo- 
lutionary War, and in 1814 went to Ohio and 
settled there, and the family has resided in that 
State ever since. 

9 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

The grandmother of the President, Mary Rose, 
came from a Puritan family that went from 
England to Holland and then from Holland to 
Pennsylvania, corning over with William Penn as 
one of the colony of the great Quaker. The father 
of the President, William McKinley, Senior, was 
born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, in 1807, and 
married Nancy Campbell Anderson, of Columbiana 
Comity, Ohio, in 1829. Both the father and 
grandfather of the President were iron manufac- 
turers. The father was a devout Methodist, a 
Whig and Republican, an advocate of a protective 
tariff, and in all these particulars the son has fol- 
lowed in the footsteps of his distinguished ancestor. 
His father died in 1882 at the age of eighty-five. 
His mother died at Canton, Ohio, in 1897, at the 
age of eighty-nine. 

William McKinley attended the public schools 
at Niles, the Union Seminary at Poland, Ohio, and 
for a term attended Allegheny College, at Mead- 
ville, Pennsylvania, and he taught in the public 
schools. Mr. McKinley was a clerk in a small 
country post-office when the war began, and on 
June 11, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the 
Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He went 
into active service at once in West Virginia, and it 
may be said of him during his entire military 
career that he was always in active service. For 
special services at Antietam he was promoted to 

10 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Second Lieutenant, his commission dating from 
September 24, 1862, and on February 7, 1863, he 
was again promoted to First Lieutenant. He was 
in the great Lynchburg retreat in which his regi- 
ment marched 180 miles, practically fighting from 
start to finish during that long-drawn-out and 
terrible retreat. 

He was in the battle at Winchester and was 
especially noted for his gallantry. It was here 
that he performed the feat of personal courage 
which probably saved a regiment from capture. 
Going to it with an order under heavy fire, riding 
at the risk of his life, he delivered the order and 
saved the regiment. He became Captain at the 
age of twenty-one years, and was in the fighting in 
the Shenandoah Valley. At Berryville his horse 
was shot under him. He served on the staffs of 
Hayes, Crook, and Hancock, and was brevetted 
Major of Volunteers by President Lincoln for 
special bravery in the battles of Opequan, Cedar 
Creek, and Fisher's Hill. No man in his grade of 
service earned brighter distinction for personal 
gallantry than did young McKinley. At the close 
of the war, being mustered out on July 21, 1865, 
he returned to his home at Poland, Ohio, and 
began the study of law. He attended the law 
school at Albany, N. Y., and was admitted to the 
bar at Warren, 0., in March, 1867, and removed 
to Canton, which has ever since been his 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

home. In 1867 he made his first political speech 
in favor of the Constitutional Amendment submitted 
to the voters of Ohio to strike out the word 
" white" where it appears in the Constitution as a 
qualification for voters. It was a campaign in 
which the lowest possible prejudices of man's heart 
were appealed to by the opposition, and while 
Hayes was elected Governor by a trifling majority, 
a Democratic Legislature was chosen and the Con- 
stitutional Amendment defeated. In 1869 he was 
elected Prosecuting Attorney of Stark County, 
served one term and was defeated for re-election. 

In January, 1871, he married Miss Ida Saxton, 
the daughter of a distinguished newspaper editor 
and banker at Canton. Two daughters were born 
to them, both of whom died in early childhood. 
He was elected to Congress in 1876 and came to 
Washington with the administration of Hayes, 
under whose command he had served during the 
greater portion of the war. He was a close 
personal and confidential friend of Hayes ; he be- 
lieved in Hayes, and Hayes believed in him. He 
served seven terms in Congress, with the exception 
that upon a frivolous contest he was unseated 
about the middle of one term. 

He was a candidate for Speaker at the organiza- 
tion of the Fifty -first Congress, but was defeated 
by Mr. Reed, who gave him the great position of 
Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

hence he became leader of the Republican majority 
of the House. Returning to Ohio he encountered a 
gerrymander of his district, and while the district 
had usually given a Democratic majority of be- 
tween three and four thousand, he came within six 
or seven hundred of an election. In 1891 he was 
elected Governor of Ohio by about the usual 
plurality, and in 1893 he was re-elected by the 
overwhelming majority of nearly 81,000. He was 
a friend of Blaine. He supported Blaine for the 
nomination in 1884, was a member of the Com- 
mittee on Resolutions and presented the platform 
to the Convention. He was a Delegate at Large in 
1888 and supported John Sherman, and was again 
chairman of the Committee on Resolutions. In 
1892 he was again a Delegate at Large from Ohio 
and supported the renomination of Harrison. He 
served as Chairman of the Convention. In that 
Convention he steadily refused to permit his name 
to be presented, but, notwithstanding this fact, he 
received 182 votes for President. 

In 1896 he was nominated for President at the 
St. Louis Convention, receiving 06 1 1-2 votes to 
84 1-2 votes given for Thomas B. Reed, 61 1-2 
votes for Matthew S. Quay, 58 votes for Levi P. 
Morton, and 35 1-2 votes for William B. Allison. 
He was elected by a plurality of the popular vote 
of over 600,000 and received 271 electoral votes 
against 176 for William J. Bryan, of Nebraska. 

13 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

He was renominated for President by acclamation 
at Philadelphia on June 21, 1900, and received 
292 electoral votes to 155 for William J. Bryan. 
As heretofore stated, it is not so easy to write 
of living men as of those who have completed 
their careers and passed into history. This much 
may be said of the first terra of William McKinley : 
He encountered vast questions of constitutional 
law and vast exigencies of administration. He in- 
herited, as it were, from his predecessor, a con- 
dition existing between the tremendous popular 
feeling in the United States in sympathy with the 
people of Cuba and the dread of war with a foreign 
power. 

Step by step his country was forced into war 
with Spain. He did not seek this condition and 
struggled patriotically against it. He believed that 
diplomacy might accomplish all that war could 
accomplish and leave this country in far better 
position than could come of actual hostilities. 
Never for one moment hesitating to execute the 
determination of the American people that the 
domination of Spain should be shaken off from the 
Gem of the Antilles, he held back earnestly against 
precipitating hostilities, and it may well be believed 
to-day but for the mysterious sinking of the Maine 
in the harbor of Havana his purpose in that behalf 
would have been achieved. This country was ill 
prepared for war. With an army of less than 

14 



WILLIAM MoKINLEY 

25,000 effective men, without arms and ammunition 
or appliances, war came. In February, prior to 
the declaration of war in April, Congress appro- 
priated |50,000,000 to be used by the President to 
put the country on a war footing and prepare for 
the exigencies that seemed so imminent. 

The expenditure of that money, under the direct 
personal administration of the President, produced 
marvellous results, and in a brief sketch it is only 
possible to say that before the first day of July, 
1898, we had an army of a quarter of a million of 
men, armed, equipped, well fed, well housed and 
well clothed. It is not my purpose to discuss the 
operations of the army or the navy. It is sufficient 
to say that before August 10th of that year, within 
one hundred and twenty days from the declaration 
of war, Spain had been overthrown and conquered 
on land and sea, stripped of her navy and her army 
destroyed, and both substantially made prisoners. 

The achievement of the United States in the 
organization and preparation for war, the adminis- 
tration of all the branches of the army and naval 
service, and the distinction won by our soldiers and 
sailors on land and sea, is a chapter in the world's 
history, brilliant beyond comparison or description. 
Following the war came the great questions of what 
was to be done with the acquired territory. By 
the treaty of Paris, which was signed December 10, 
1898, we acquired the sovereignty of Porto Rico 

] 5 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

and the Philippine Islands, and the grave questions 
which arose are still undecided. Among the 
foreign complications which fell to the lot of 
President McKiuley's administration to solve, and 
which met him on the very threshold, was the 
Hawaiian affair. The withdrawal of the treaty 
negotiated by Mr. Harrison from the Senate by 
President Cleveland left for four years a condition 
of substantial anarchy in the Sandwich Islands. 
McKinley made haste to bring about a ratification 
of the treaty of annexation, and his administration 
has proceeded gradually, but constantly, to the 
work of the establishment of civil government in 
those islands. Other complications met him, in- 
cluding the Behring Sea seal question, which caused 
no little irritation, but which was finally satis- 
factorily settled and disposed of. Great irritation 
grew up between the settlers and gold-seekers 
along the Alaskan boundary, but by wisely arranged 
modus vivendl satisfactory results are in process of 
being reached. 

From the very first President McKinley bent to 
the task of removing the lingering prejudice and ill- 
feeling existing between the North and the South, 
which for thirty-three years had followed the Civil 
War. Without going into details it is proper in 
this connection to say that at the end of his first 
administration the traces and scars of civil strife 
are practically eliminated and a better condition of 

16 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

feeling exists between the North and the South 
than has ever existed from the days of Calhoun 
down to the present hour. Conciliation with firm- 
ness, recognition of the merits of all men, and the 
just appreciation of adverse opinion, have been the 
strong characteristics of his administration. 

Mr. McKinley had served in the House of Repre- 
sentatives for a long period of time. In that 
relation he had come in close contact with the men 
prominent in affairs in the United States. He had 
been himself a strong, uncompromising Republican. 
His partisanship never faltered when it was a 
question of his party's success, but his judgment 
and appreciation of the men of the Democratic 
Party was so fair and so generous that he found 
himself duly appreciated by the men of the Demo- 
cratic Party who had served with him in Congress, 
and this fact alone smoothed the way to the 
relations now existing between the President and 
the minority of the country. While the campaign 
of 1900 was bitterly fought on both sides, the 
personal popularity of McKinley is traceable in the 
election returns from every precinct in the Demo- 
cratic States. No partisan candidate for President 
ever received so large a vote from the opposite 
party as did McKinley. The numbers ran up into 
many thousands in many of the Southern States, as 
indicated by the small pluralities against McKinley 
in the very districts and States where large plurali- 

17 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

ties or majorities were given for the regular Demo- 
cratic candidates for Governor, for Congressman 
and for other officers. 

It was said of him during his first campaign that 
he would be unduly yielding to pressure, that he 
would mould his sentiments to escape antagonism 
with persistent advisers, and that he would be 
dominated by leaders of his party. The end of his 
first administration shows that there was not the 
smallest foundation for any one of these suggestions. 
While he has ever been yielding to the opinions 
of others, when his own opinion was thereby 
modified, he has exhibited a steady, unyielding 
purpose of his own to carry into effect by his 
administrative acts the great principles and ideas 
he believed to underlie the foundations of the 
Government and to be indispensable to its pros- 
perity. 

At the close of his first administration he has 
the great joy to recognize that during no other four 
years of the history of this country was there ever 
such mighty strides of prosperity witnessed here or 
elsewhere. The growth of business, the expausion 
of trade, the development of manufactures, the 
employment and compensation of labor, the pros- 
perity of agriculture with the growth of the national 
sentiment at home and the recognition of the 
mighty power and consequence of the nation 
abroad, have given to his administration a degree of 

18 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

success unparalleled. The personal characteristics 
of McKinley were most attractive. No comparison 
should be instituted between the personality of 
public men, much less the President of the United 
States, but McKinley was, in his relation to the 
masses of the people, and with all the people, from 
the highest to the lowest, a marvel of genial habits 
and characteristics which it would be vain for me 
to attempt to describe. He upheld the dignity of 
the Presidential office and reached with hand and 
heart of man to every person who ever came in 
contact with him. The geniality and kindliness 
with which he was wont to meet the people was as 
genuine as the shining of the sun in the morning. 
There was none of the sycophant, none of the 
hunter for popularity, none of the tricks of the 
handshaker, but the genial, warm-hearted, true 
man who looks his neighbor in the face and 
recognizes the imprint of the Maker. 

Note. — The foregoing sketch was written in January, 1901, 
during the lifetime of William McKinley and appears exactly 
as written at that time. The publication of this book having 
been delayed so long, it remains now to be stated that William 
McKinley was assassinated in the Temple of Music of the Buf- 
falo Exposition on September G, 1901. He lingered with great 
promise of recovery until the early hours of September 13, 1901, 
when a reaction set in, which resulted in his untimely death at 
2.15 on the morning of September 14, 1901. He died at the 
residence of John W. Milburn, President of the Buffalo Exposi- 
tion. His remains were conveyed from Buffalo to the Capitol 

19 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

in "Washington, where they laid in state on September 17th, and 
were thence conveyed to Canton, O., where they were laid to 
rest on September 19th. 

It is impossible for me to add words of sufficient eulogy to 
satisfy my own feelings. To the great mass of American people 
the death of McKinley came as a personal grief and a permanent 
personal sorrow. There was not a city, town, hamlet, shop, mine, 
factory, or farm in the United States that did not exhibit tokens 
of grief. Words of condolence and sympathy came from every 
civilized nation on the globe. Nothing like it has ever been 
witnessed as the result of the death of any man. Not alone re- 
spected, he was beloved by the people. Tears flowed, eulogies 
were pronounced, houses were draped all over the world. On 
the day of his funeral the entire commerce of the United States, 
even to the street railroads and trolley lines, ceased for five min- 
utes, and there was an absolute silence of all business enterprise 
and business movement throughout the United States; a great 
tribute to the man who had done so much for the welfare of 
his country. He died in the full vigor of his great manhood. 
He fell right at his post of duty. He fell when his great policies 
had reached their culmination in the prosperity of his country, 
the abolishment of sectional lines, the fraternity of sentiment 
and action, and amid the tears of his devoted people. 



Editorials from Representative 
Newspapers 

Cincinnati Daily Enquirer. 

THE PRESIDENT NO MORE. 

The mortal end of President William ilcKinley has come. 
To him the mystery of the other and better world is unsealed. 
" 'Tis but a man gone," if we view the incident from the stand- 
point of every-day life. With thousands of others who had held 
brief careers on this big round globe, his spirit fled on the 14th of 
September, 1901. The tragedy of nature has a fearful enact- 
ment every day, if we stop> in our vocations and our pleasures 
to count those who have fallen in the unremitting battle of ex- 
istence. If each person were called upon to mourn all the dead, 
there would be an unceasing deluge of tears. 

Ordinarily, when a life goes out the busy world goes on and 
scarcely heeds the murmurs of the few who are directly be- 
reaved. This is a part of the wise provision of nature. It is 
only when a man of exalted position, and of great moral worth, 
passes away, that grief assumes the mien of universality — that 
" enterprises of great pith and moment " are arrested in the 
general tribute, not merely to the man, but to the mighty interests 
and civilizations which he represents by the voice of the people. 
It is also wise that on such an occasion the lesson of the brevity 
of life — brief alike to sovereign and peasant, to President and 
plain citizen — should impress itself on all. 

The awful shock to the President's invalid wife, to his imme- 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

diate relatives and intimate friends, is something so inexpressible 
that no one could adequately write it without a deep feeling of 
sorrow and sympathy that in themselves disarm his pen. But it. 
is still a more solemn event in its general aspect. It is the result 
of the work of a wretched assassin against the voice of eighty 
millions of people who give the model Republic the breath of 
life. A murderer has braved the sentiment of a free and en- 
lightened people and made a great country almost desperate in 
its helplessness against a vulgar criminal. 

The great heart of American citizenship beats in sorrow for 
William McKinley as a man and as a Chief Executive. 

The consolation upon which we must rely is in the perpetuity 
of our institutions — their stable strength against the most fearful 
shocks. Great men have come and gone, and contributed their 
sparks of genius to the creation of the fabric that is indestructible. 
William McKinley has done his part. He has made his impress, 
and the Government will go on without him and his predeces- 
sors in the cause of the public. 



San Francisco Call. 



DEAD. 



The President's death, coming close upon the bright promise 
of his recovery, hurts the good heart of the people more than if 
the assassin's malice had effected its purpose immediately. In 
the universal sorrow there is little to be said that is comforting. 
Our people have taken pride in the peculiarly American career 
of their Presidents. Washington was the owner of a large es- 
tate, but his life was that of a plain man, the planter's life of his 
time, and aside from his work as a civil engineer and his military 
experience, his interests were with the land, the crops, and the 
markets, and his country. 

The elder and younger Adams were more nearly patrician 



WILLIAM McKXNLEY 

than any others of our Presidents. Jefferson lived upon the in- 
come of his land, and Madison and Monroe were men of means 
below the average of their time. Jackson was orphaned by the 
Revolution in his childhood. His mother died by the wayside 
on her way from nursing the wounded Continentals, and while 
in the Presidency he was concerned in the marketing of the crops 
produced, and the skins of wild animals killed, on the lands 
around the Hermitage. Martin Van Buren's life began among 
humble surroundings at Kinderhook, and both the Harrisons 
had rugged struggles in early life. Lincoln and Johnson had 
no heritage but their genius. Grant began on an Ohio farm. 
Garfield was a barefoot boy on the canal, and Cleveland had his 
growth upward through a weight of poverty and privation. 

To this class belonged William McKinley. The first neces- 
sity of his life was self-support, and the Civil War found him a 
youth contributing cheerfully as a breadwinner to the typically 
American family into which he was born. The tocsin stirred 
him to immediate action, and he entered the ranks as a private 
soldier, offering his life for that of his country, to witness the 
victory of the Union as a commissioned officer. 

In Congress, as Governor of his State, and as President, he 
was always the typical American. On him no experience was 
lost. His early privations, his observations as an industrial 
doctrinaire, his keen analysis of the conditions of popular pros- 
perity, formed in him the resolution to do his might for the in- 
dustrial, financial, and commercial supremacy of his country, 
to the end that not only should opportunity be equal and better 
than in his youth, but that the means of men to grasp it should 
be increased. Dominated by this idea, his election to the Presi- 
dency made him the instrument of its realization. 

He has fallen in the midst of his fruition among men. By 
his fidelity his country is the foremost nation. Xo empire past 
or present exceeded its power. He found it industrially de- 
pressed and financially dependent. It mourns with his house- 

23 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

hold, a nation that centres within itself the power to dictate to 
the world. 

The day that a wretched assassin executed upon him the 
malice of his detractors, his country could boast the largest num- 
ber of the best paid laborers, the most prosperous farmers and 
manufacturers in the world, the most contented homes, the best 
fed and best clothed people upon whom the sun shines. In all 
this his agency was direct and not intermediate. The benefactor 
of his country dies, murdered by a monster who prates in jus- 
tification his love of " the common people! " A typical Ameri- 
can, the light of the nation's life, is dead, slain by the distorted 
spawn of imported degeneracy, inspired by a sentiment pro- 
moted by one who should be outlawed by all races and all nations 
and scorned by all men. 

The nation will wipe away its tears and go forward. The 
great President survives himself. The impulse his potent genius 
has given to the interests of the people will continue. This is 
a land of law which all make, all must obey, and none can assassi- 
nate. His constitutional successor will take the great office and 
its great responsibilities, and bear them like a man. The assassin 
sought to murder a nation, but that nation will live with power 
unimpaired. It will fulfil the high destiny devised for it by 
its stricken citizen and chief. Its people will draw closer to- 
gether. They will, with awakened zeal, demand that American 
life and energy shall be less polluted by the turbid stream that 
has poured upon our shores, bringing the morbid and murderous 
blood that breeds such reptiles as this assassin. They will more 
quickly mark the degenerate ingrate among themselves, whose 
cunning lies and false alarms misrepresent his country. Over 
the white face of the dead they will take a fresh oath of fidelity 
to freedom, to American principles, to a higher sense of duty, 
and they will make this a land in which no traitor to the prin- 
ciples of its people can live. 

While the bells toll for the dead and the sombre emblems of 

24 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

mourning are abroad, and the sun shines less brightly and men 
go softly and downcast, let no one mistake it all for a sign of 
despair. It means heart-soreness and sorrow as the beginning of 
a higli resolve that toleration of the causes of this mighty crime 
has ended. 



From the Washington Post. 

THE PRESIDENT IS DEAD. 

Our beloved President is dead. The hopes, the almost con- 
fident expectations, with which we entered upon the current 
week have led us to his grave. Even as lately as three days ago 
the buoyant feeling prompted by the official bulletins still pos- 
sessed us. Millions of men and women rejoiced in what they 
had accepted as a sure promise of his restoration. Even yester- 
day they hoped. But the end is here. The shadow fades upon 
the wall. And of William McKinley, a few hours ago the 
greatest ruler in the whole world, there remains only the memory 
of his abundant virtues and the shining record of his honorable 
achievement. 

One risks nothing in the assertion that no President of the 
United States since the foundation of the American Union ever 
won so thoroughly the personal affection of his fellow-citizens. 
We have had soldiers and statesmen, patriots and martyrs, and 
they have commanded our admiration, our enthusiasm, our grati- 
tude, our loyalty. But Mr. McKinley had all this and more — 
he had our sympathies, our impulses of fellow-feeling, our 
brotherly and filial devotion. It is no small thing for a Chief 
Magistrate, set above eighty million of people, to secure not only 
the respect and confidence, but the deep and genuine friendship 
of those over whom he has been called to rule. It is, indeed, 
a thing as rare as it is great, for it is given only to such as truly 
love their brethren and demonstrate it in their daily lives. 

25 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

McKinley was so deeply rooted in the nation's love, he had so 
enveloped himself in popular esteem, not even the bitterest ene- 
mies of the Republican Party could be brought to imagine evil 
in his case, no matter what scandal might touch the organization 
itself. Whatever happened, his 'scutcheon was clear and bright. 
Under any circumstances, the people's faith in him was fixed. 

What indescribable pathos characterizes the closing chapter 
of this remarkable career! Ten days ago he stood erect, the 
figure of a fine virility, full of health and strength, his intellectual 
powers at their zenith. He had scarcely entered upon his sec- 
ond term as President, having been re-elected under cir- 
cumstances that made his success almost a national ovation. 
Beloved on every hand, honored, trusted, hailed as the people's 
friend and sympathizer; sure of popular support in everything 
and anything he did, he was the most enviable public man in all 
the world. To-day he lies in his coffin, ready for the tomb. 
Mankind will honor his memory not less for the splendid forti- 
tude with which he met his fate than for the triumphs he 
achieved in life. History furnishes no nobler spectacle than that 
of the stricken President, one hand upon his breast, looking with 
a gentle pity at the wretch who had just wounded him to death. 
History records no more touching episode than that of Mr. 
McKinley lapsing slowly into unconsciousness, and, while the 
surgeons waited, whispering, " Thy kingdom come; Thy will be 
done," as he passed into the world of dreams. A Christian sol- 
dier, he. With the shadows closing round about him, shutting 
out the fair vision of an earthly greatness without parallel upon 
this globe, it was as though he heard the Master's call, which 
others could not hear, and his brave lips answered: Adsum! 
Then came awakening, an interval of hope and cheerfulness, 
illumined always by that patient courage which had ennobled 
the whole tragedy, and then the darkening valley, the weary eyes, 
the final sleep. 

No place now for conventional retrospect or calculating fore- 

26 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

cast. We give this hour to our grief. The man we loved lies 
dead, the victim of a crime too diabolical for words — a crime 
which stuns while it afflicts us. But we know that he died 
humbly, lovingly, without fear. He must have fancied the green 
fields and heard the running brooks, and seen the purple chang- 
ing on the hill, for as he passed he murmured : 

" Nearer, my God, to Thee! " 



From the Baltimore Sun. 

THE DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT. 

The death of President Mclvinley, after the optimistic and 
cheering reports which have come from his bedside day after 
day, is scarcely less of a shock to the country than was the an- 
nouncement of the murderous attack upon him. The false 
hopes upon which the public has been fed serve, indeed, to in- 
tensify the general grief and depression and add the pang of 
bitter disappointment to the original burden of regret and sor- 
row. Many persons of experience and conservatism, it is true, 
accepted the daily bulletins issued at Buffalo with considerable 
allowance for the possibility of human error, but the physicians 
and surgeons in attendance on the President were men of emi- 
nence in their profession, and the tone of their bulletins was 
so confident and buoyant that the great majority of people 
were led to believe that the danger-point had been passed and 
that the recovery of the distinguished patient was in all prob- 
ability but a matter of a few weeks. The fall from this height 
of hope is, as we have said, a second blow scarcely less severe 
than the first, and invests the momentous tragedy with a deep 
pathos that touches every heart. The physicians will doubtless 
be the objects of criticism in many quarters, but whether their 
explanations are entirely satisfactory or not, it should be re- 

27 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

merubered that the issues of life and death are in higher hands 
than theirs, and that they exerted all their skill and intelligence ' 
in the struggle against death. The melancholy termination of 
the battle shows that medical and surgical science still fights 
in the dark in many cases against its old antagonist, Death, and 
that there are still many things connected with life and disease 
undreamt of in its philosophy. If the President was not to re- 
cover, it was unquestionably best both for him and the country 
that he should have passed away after his brief illness of little 
more than a week, rather than have been doomed to linger on in 
suffering for two months and a half, like President Garfield. 
Both he and the country are saved the protracted agony of sus- 
pense and pain which would have been involved in a long and 
vain contest with a fatal wound, and we have the sad satisfaction 
of knowing that he has been saved the torture of a lingering 
death, the keen pangs of hope deferred, and the weariness of 
mind and body that oppress the sufferer who is forced to pass 
slowly through the valley of the great shadow. 

Little more than ten months ago William McKinley seemed 
one of the favorite sons of fortune. Re-elected to the chief 
office of the nation by an overwhelming electoral vote after one 
of the most tremendous struggles in our political annals and a 
campaign involving issues of world-wide consequence, he rode 
conspicuous on the crest of that great wave of victory as one 
of the most important and significant figures of contemporaneous 
history. Identified with a new and far-reaching policy of gov- 
ernment that placed us among the national dictators of the world, 
and the representative of a new regime of aspiration that 
stretched out its hands for power and business development to 
the uttermost ends of the earth, no other ruler among men 
seemed to stand on so glorious a summit of possibility as an 
architect of national greatness and a moulder of national destiny. 
His future appeared full of nothing but greatness and good 
fortune, while that of his Presidential rival suggested only 

28 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

political obscurity and failure. And yet if he had been defeated 
last November and his Democratic rival elected, he would have 
been alive to-day and Mr. Bryan would probably have been 
the victim of the undiscriminating anarchist, whose murderous 
creed knows no distinction of party or form of government. 
This would seem to be the very mockery of fate. And yet it 
was not a fate which Mr. McKinley would have been willing to 
escape at the sacrifice of what he considered his duty to his 
country. Now that he lies silent in the calm radiance of death 
the passions and prejudices of " life's little day " give way to a 
broader charity and to a deeper insight, and we see face to face 
the soul which we saw as through a glass darkly during the 
storms of faction and the clouds of party rivalry. Duty and des- 
tiny were favorite words of Mr. McKinley, and we can cheer- 
fully concede now that they came from his heart, and that as 
he was true to his conceptions of duty he would not have shirked 
his destiny, dark and bloody though it has been, could he have 
foreseen that his re-election was but the portal to death. It 
was another of the fortunate circumstances of his misfortune 
that while his sufferings were not prolonged, he lived long- 
enough to know of the outpouring of national love which the 
attack on him produced and of the universal good-will and es- 
teem with which he was personally regarded in every section of 
the country. He lived long enough to feel the solace of the 
prayers that men offered for his recovery, and to realize that if 
destiny had given him a martyr's cross, it also brought the mar- 
tyr's crown of immortality and honor. Quite as truly as any 
soldier who falls in battle, he died for his country as the victim 
of a social propaganda which wages war against the representa- 
tives of all civilization and government. 

The Divine Healer did not answer, as we asked, our prayers 
for his recovery. We asked for his life, and He has given him 
" a long life, even forever and ever." His own prayer as he 
sank into unconsciousness before the surgical operation was that 

29 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

of the soldier and the Christian—" Thy kingdom come; Thy 
will be done." It was the spirit of one ready for any fate, the 
spirit of a manly, Christian gentleman, who had faced danger 
and death and all the problems of life many times before, and 
was prepared to face the last great problem with the same brave 
and unshaken heart. In this solemn moment, when death unites 
the nation in a brotherhood of sorrow, all true Americans will 
delight in doing honor to the noble personal qualities which 
illuminated the life of Mr. McKinley and made him a splendid 
type of American manhood, which is the highest expression of 
humanity. Mr. McKinley was a man of strong and solid mind, 
if not of brilliant intellectuality, and history will give him high 
rank among our Presidents, not only because of his association 
with the great events of his time, but because of real ability and 
comprehensive grasp in public affairs, and this without refer- 
ence to whether he was right or wrong in his views of govern- 
ment policy. But his moral qualities are those which the Ameri- 
can people will admire and dwell upon most at this juncture — 
his personal and public purity, his kindly heart and generous 
impulses, his shining domestic virtues, his love of country, and 
his brave and undaunted soul. If his name is associated in his- 
tory with grave changes in governmental policy and national at- 
titude as regards foreign affairs, it will also be associated with 
the patriotic and noble effort to bury sectional discord at home 
and to unite in peace and love the States torn asunder many 
years ago by hate and war. Standing by the man who has died 
for the nation, we are all to-day Americans, and nothing but 
Americans. As the blood of the martyr is the seed of the Church, 
the tragedy of Mr. McKinley's death should strengthen the 
foundations of the Kepublic by bringing closer together all who 
love free institutions and giving fresh power to old ideals and 
aspirations. His touching prayer — "Thy kingdom come; Thy 
will be done " — should be the inspiration for the revival of a 
higher Americanism that will know no rivalry but that of bring- 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

ing our republican institutions to the loftiest attainable level 
and of making our common country better, greater, and more 
glorious than ever before. 

Los Angeles Express. 

PRESIDENT McKINLEY IS DEAD. 

At last the worst has been realized. The President's assassin 
did his atrocious work in a manner that was surely deadly. Presi- 
dent McKinley breathed his last at 2.15 this morning. The par- 
ticulars of his passing are given in the despatches from Buffalo 
in sufficient detail. 

The life of President McKinley has been sacrificed on the 
altar of firm government and rational being. The assassin, that 
most detestable of creatures, has robbed the Government of the 
United States of its executive head, and the people of the United 
States of the man they have delighted to regard as the first citi- 
zen of the Republic. 

And now he is cut short in his high and brilliant career. He 
is dead! President McKinley is no more. The Los Angeles 
" Express," with all other patriotic journals and all good citizens, 
commits him to lasting history. His name and the story of his 
tragic ending never will be forgotten. 



From the Philadelphia Press. 

THE NATION'S LOSS. 

The President is dead. No words can add and none can 
speak the loss to a land which for the third time in our day 
stands by the bier of a President slain. 

Death lifts all to a new light and a new place in the hearts 
of men. Nor less with the great man gone. He had all that 
can come to the sons of men. He fought for his land in his 

3i 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

youth. He early won its wide praise. He shared through all 
his mid and active years in its greater work. Twice he was 
called to be its head. 

This without — and within in that hid life which to all men, 
high or low, is more than all else on earth, he was blessed. 
Early loved and early wed, through long years, with all they 
brought of joy or grief, and the daily strain of illness for the 
woman who to-day faces life's greatest sorrow, he wore the stain- 
less flower of perfect and undivided love. He died as men both 
brave and good can — his face turned fearless to the great future 
in which he saw and knew the divine love which had guided 
all his days. 

The annals of men through all time are the richer for this 
high record of a stainless life, and his land is left poor by the loss 
of its first and foremost son. Round the world runs the shadow 
of eclipsing grief as flags drop and the nations feel a common sor- 
row which knows bounds as little as his name and fame. All 
things pass. He with them. But there remains one more 
memory of a good man grown great, dead at the post of duty, to 
breathe hope and give strength to all who like him make their 
land the heart's first desire and know that its first high service 
is the good life and pure. He joins the triad of martyred Presi- 
dents. One slain by rebellion, one by partisan rancor, and one 
by the baser passions of corroding envy and a hand raised against 
all law, all rule, and all government. 

The spirit of rebellion was buried with Lincoln. The grave 
of Garfield is the perpetual reminder of the risks of party hate. 
It will be the duty of those who live, in all posts and places, in 
all ranks and work, to serve the land he loved and made greater, 
to see to it that his death is the end of the creed and speech which 
cost the nation its President. There must be an end in his grave 
of all the envy, malice, and hatred of the advance, progress, and 
success of men, which is the seed and root of anarchy, and which 
daily seeks to set citizen against citizen. 

32 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

St. Louis Globe- Democrat. 

MR. McKINLEY IN HISTORY. 

William McKinley's particular distinction in history will be 
that he was at the head of the Government when the United 
States, emerging from its condition of exclusiveness and aloof- 
ness, entered the comity of world-nations. Other Presidents 
also have dealt with great domestic problems, like the finances 
and the tariff, at times when these issues came up in an acute 
phase. Other Presidents have likewise directed the public 
affairs of the country through great wars, some foreign and some 
domestic. Washington, the country's first political chieftain, 
had been its military commander in the conflict which made it 
a nation. Madison was at the front at the time when the war 
of 1812-15 gained for the country the social independence which 
supplemented the political independence won by Washington. 
Polk was President through the war of 1846-48, which, by the 
annexation of New Mexico and California, advanced the coun- 
try's boundaries on the southwest to the Pacific, and contributed 
the latest accession of contiguous territory. Lincoln, in the con- 
flict of 1861-65, made the nation, in the words of Chief-Justice 
Chase, in a decision rendered a few years afterward, an " inde- 
structible union of indestructible States." 

It was Mr. McKinley's peculiar honor that he controlled 
the Government's destinies at the time when the United States, 
ceasing to be restricted in its concerns to the Western hemisphere, 
projected itself into the expanding circle of world interests and 
activities. This ned departure originated with the late Presi- 
dent himself, so far as regards its practical operation. At the 
time when the terms of peace with Spain were being arranged 
Congress was not in session. During that epochal period the 
President had an absolutely free hand in the management of the 
affairs of the Government. He could have made what terms he 

33 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

liked with Spain without any fear of opposition on the part of 
Congress. Porto Rico and the Philippines could have been 
given up, as many prominent newspapers and Congressmen ad- 
vocated at the time and afterward. All the country except the 
trans-Mississippi region seemed to be indifferent on those points. 
The region between the Mississippi and the Pacific, particularly 
between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, urged from 
the beginning that the flag in Porto Rico and the Philippines 
be kept up. Mr. McKinley, who was quicker than any other 
President since Lincoln to grasp the popular will, and who 
obeyed it more implicitly than any other executive since the 
Civil War President, swung the entire country over to the posi- 
tion taken by this section, and inscribed this policy on the world's 
statutes. 

The outside world was earlier than this country in gauging 
the momentous significance of this broadening of the United 
States' sphere of activity. Premier Salisbury grasped it when 
he made his celebrated contrast between growing and dying na- 
tions. The late ex-Premier Crispi viewed it as a portent when 
he attempted to project his vision into the future to the time 
when the wealthy, expanding, aggressive, and militant United 
States of America should come in conflict with the stationary, 
hampered, tradition-fettered, and disunited Europe. The picture 
which the great Italian statesman drew is not accepted by the 
American people. They believe that part of the country's mis- 
sion is to spread the blessings of civilization and democracy 
throughout the world, and hasten the era of universal peace. 
This view has already been justified by concrete facts. In the 
sway which it has just exerted in China there is an indication of 
the direction in which the influence of the United States is to 
work in the coming time. Even while seeming to follow Con- 
gress on some important questions, the late President in reality 
usually led. He was a tribune and representative of the Ameri- 
can people in one of the momentous crises of their history. 

34 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

William McKinley was the creator and the director of the new 
and greater United States which has just entered the circle of 
world nations. 



Indianapolis Journal. 

OUR DEAD PRESIDENT. 

The American people can say the worst has happened, but 
not altogether the unexpected. From the moment that the 
shooting of the President was announced, and the location and 
nature of his really serious wounds were known, there was a 
general feeling that his recovery was doubtful, and behind all 
the hopeful bulletins there lurked a fear that the wound or 
resulting complications would prove fatal. The President's 
strong constitution, his robust health, and his great will-power 
were in his favor, but his age, though not great, was rather 
against him, and there were so many possibilities involved that 
everybody felt there was a strong probability that he would not 
recover. This worst presentiment has been verified, and the 
American people are called to mourn the death of the third of 
their Presidents slain by the assassin. 

There are those who were much nearer to Mr. McKinley 
than were the people at large, and to whom his death means 
much more than it does to the most of his countrymen. For 
these universal sympathy will go out in the largest degree, be- 
cause they mourn the death of one who was near and dear to 
them, but the people also will mourn the loss of a great leader 
and President, whom they were learning more and more to trust 
and follow. No American statesman has ever grown more 
steadily or rapidly in public estimation at home and abroad than 
Mr. McKinley did from his first election as President. When 
he was called to the Presidential chair there were some even of 
his political supporters who doubted whether he would meas- 
ure up to the requirements of the office. These doubts were 

35 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

soon dispelled. He more than fulfilled the expectations and pre- 
dictions of those who had the best means of knowing and judging 
him. During an administration of stress and storm he showed 
himself easily the master of every situation, and won the ad- 
miration of his countrymen by his political tact and that of 
foreigners by his wise statesmanship. His election for a sec- 
ond term was a splendid popidar indorsement of his first ad- 
ministration, and the two together form one of the most brilliant 
eras in our history. There can be no doubt but the future his- 
torian will class William McKinley among the greatest of our 
Presidents — great in his patriotism, in his leadership, in his 
devotion to duty, in his singleness of purpose, in his conscien- 
tiousness, in his moral courage, in his nearness to and trust in 
the people, in his loyalty to high ideals, in his simplicity of char- 
acter, in his personal and domestic virtues — in short, great in all 
that goes to make a statesman and ruler for a free people to be 
proud of. This will be McKinley's place in history. The verr 
diet has already been measurably anticipated by the judgment 
of intelligent foreigners, who, at their distance, are better capa- 
ble of forecasting the judgment of posterity than are Mr. 
McKinley's countrymen of to-day. Among them there is no 
dissenting voice in the opinion that he was one of the greatest 
Presidents we have had. The London " Globe," usually un- 
friendly to the United States, says : " He played with signal 
distinction and entire success the difficult part so suddenly im- 
posed upon him by the new imperial destiny of the United 
States." Lord Salisbury's private secretary, speaking for the 
British Premier, said that in Mr. McKinley's death " the whole 
world will lose a man of greater integrity and statesmanship 
than it at present realizes." Similar expressions have come from 
all over the world. In the national mourning this event will 
cause the American people can feel that they have the sincere 
sympathy of all civilized peoples, irrespective of the cause of the 
President's death and " the deep damnation of his taking off." 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Language fails to express the magnitude of the nation's loss 
by the death of its Chief Magistrate under such circumstances 
— such a President, at such a time, and by such means! The 
death of such a man as Mr. McKinley after his retirement from 
office, and from natural causes, would have been a national loss, 
as was that of ex-President Harrison, but to have him stricken 
down by the bullet of au assassin in the fulness of health and 
the very culmination of his career will intensify the popular 
grief. President McKinley had grown very steadily in popular 
estimation since his first election, but if there was any lack of 
appreciation of his character by his countrymen they need only 
accept foreign estimates of him. Without exception the states- 
men and papers of Europe have pronounced him one of the 
greatest and most admirable of our Presidents. The paper with 
the largest circulation of any in Russia said: " He is an example 
of manliness, uprightness, and noble-mindedness, of which the 
great Republic is justly proud." Similar tributes to his charac- 
ter were paid all over Europe. 

Yet even the death of such a President by the hand of an 
assassin will not shake the Government nor terrify the Ameri- 
can people. It is as true now as when Garfield declared it after 
the assassination of Abraham Lincoln: "God reigns and the 
Government at Washington still lives! " The American people 
are less excitable and more self-contained and self-controlled 
now than they were forty or even twenty years ago. They feel 
that the eyes of the world are on them, and that they must carry 
themselves in a manner befitting a great government and people. 
Their horror, indignation, and grief at this shocking crime are 
too great for expression, and, therefore, they will not try to ex- 
press them in violent outbreaks or phrases. They will take to 
heart the lesson taught by the event, and will try to make their 
Government and institutions more worthy of popular support 
and loyalty than ever before. But they will not forget the crime, 
nor the criminal, nor the odious school of thought he represents. 

37 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Philadelphia North- American. 

DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT. 

Even as a wave of astonishment accompanied the tide of hor- 
ror that was spread over the land by the assassin's blow at the 
life of the President, so there is now a shock of surprise mingled 
with the grief which bows the American people. The news 
from the stricken Chief Magistrate's bedside from almost the 
first had been so steadily encouraging that fear of a fatal result 
was all but banished. Dread gave place not merely to hope, but 
to nearly perfect confidence in his recovery. The doctors were 
unanimous in signing the cheerful reports issued up to mid- 
night on Thursday, and relatives and personal friends, who were 
kept privately informed of the conditions, exceeded the official 
bulletins in their assurances to the public that the President 
would live. The Republic was preparing for a heartfelt thanks- 
giving such as has not occurred since Lee surrendered at Appo- 
mattox. The suddenness of the blow makes it all the harder to 
bear. Rejoicing has been so swiftly turned into mourning that 
the revnlsion of feeling stuns the nation. 

He is gone, and for the people whose freely chosen chief 
servant he was there remains in this hour only grief, that can- 
not be given expression with tongue or pen, since language fails 
in the presence of a tragedy so causeless, so pathetic, so hideous. 
Blameless in his private life, a man so kindly, so richly endowed 
with the capacity for inspiring friendship, so filled with good- 
will toward others that even his political opponents responded 
with good-will in their turn — a warm-hearted, cordial, Christian 
gentleman, William McKinley was without personal enemies, 
and it seemed unthinkable that even madness itself could wish 
him harm. 

Yet, in the flower of his usefulness, this good man has been 
cut down by an assassin. The wretch does not plead what is 

38 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

understood in America as a political motive. The President's 
policies had critics in plenty, fellow-countrymen of the party in 
antagonism to his, and not a few in his own party. But the mis- 
creant or maniac who took his life pretends to no sympathy with 
the views of these critics. Though his victim was the elected Chief 
Magistrate of a self-governing Republic, limited in his power 
by the Constitution and the laws, and the supreme antithesis of 
a hereditary and absolute monarch, the assassin selected him as 
the representative of despotism. It would be a satisfaction had 
this creature come to us from some remote and poisonous quar- 
ter of darkest Europe, where anarchy is bred by tyranny, but 
we have to face the strange and humiliating fact that he was 
born and reared among ourselves, though his mind, whether it 
be sane or diseased, is as little American in its workings as if he 
had never wandered beyond the confines of a Russian commune. 
The assassin is himself as unexpected, as amazing, as his act was 
horrible and astounding. But such as the wretch is — debased, 
abnormal, petty, and grotesque — it was in his power to slaugh- 
ter greatness and wrap a nation in black. For a crime so tre- 
mendous human law has no penalty that does not impress with 
its immeasurable inadequacy. 

While his countrymen stand about the bier of the murdered 
President, sorrow's must be the one voice heard. The Presi- 
dent has fallen, but the Republic is unharmed. The tasks left 
unfinished by William McKinley will be taken up by the hands 
of him whom the laws, equal to every emergency of state, ap- 
point to fill the place so awfully, so bloodily made vacant. Amid 
the nation's grief, amid the tears for the man and the Magistrate 
taken from us by so foul and unnatural a crime, there comes to 
every American out of the past the voice of another victim of 
an assassin's bullet, who, when men were turned distraught by 
Lincoln's death, cried to them: 

" God reigns, and the Government at Washington still 
lives! " 

39 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Minneapolis Journal. 

McKINLEY'S PLACE IN HISTOEY. 

" We uncommiserate pass into the night 
From the loud banquet, and, departing, leave 
A tremor in men's memories, faint and sweet 
And frail as music." 

Time is fleeting; life is moving; the world is for the living, 
the grave for the dead. But while the humble millions live 
their lives and die their deaths unknown and but briefly 
mourned, and many of the great are cursed in death and 
fearlessly consigned to tombs that have too long awaited them, 
there are a few of the great, so blessed in life and death that they 
do not " uncommiserate pass into the night " from the banquet 
of life and endeavor, leaving behind them only memories " frail 
as music." 

Of these blessed of the Lord was William McKinley, more 
truly by the grace of God President of the United States than 
was ever king or emperor of the blood divinely chosen. 

Men long remember the righteous great whose lives have 
gone out tragically and pathetically. The tender memory and 
the sense of personal loss survive with such men far beyond 
their generation. What patriot does not, to this day, personally 
mourn the death of Lincoln — even though the noble war Presi- 
dent had been gathered to his fathers before the mourner was 
yet come out of the mist of time ? What tender-hearted boy, as 
he ponders the life of Garfield, does not feel that in him he lost 
an unknown friend? 

Thus were the fates kind to William McKinley, grievous 
as his loss is to us, hot as our indignation is at the dastard mur- 
derer, when they inscribed his name upon the roll of martyr 
Presidents, of Presidents who paid in a shorter term of earthly 
life for the greatness of station and immortality of fame. 

40 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

But the fame and memory of the late President are founded 
on his life even more than the manner of his death. The old 
Arab maxim admonishes man, who cries at birth, so to live that 
others shall weep at his death. So lived McKinley the man, so 
acted McKinley the President. 

Fortunate in his opportunities, he so availed himself of them 
that he must be numbered among the great as well as the martyr 
Presidents. 

On the scroll of Presidents who by a happy union of talents 
and opportunities have won immortal fame by their official 
acts are: 

George "Washington, founder of the Republic and inspirer of 
the great policy of non-interference with the affairs of other 
nations. 

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, 
who gave the national impulse toward democracy, and by the 
bold purchase of Louisiana acquired for the nation a territorial 
stage worthy of the nascent greatness of its people. 

James Monroe, first to establish a positive foreign policy, in 
the political doctrine that bears his name, and has for eighty 
years been the palladium of the Republics of Latin America 
against the territorial greed of Europe. 

Abraham Lincoln, emancipator of the slave and unifier of 
the nation. 

William McKinley, father of the new twentieth-century na- 
tional policy of world-wide power, influence, and beneficence for 
the great Republic. 

These five Presidents are not by any means the only promi- 
nent men who have sat in the President's chair. The list does 
not include Andrew Jackson, IT. S. Grant, and others of marked 
abilities and historic achievements, whose fame rests on what 
they did elsewhere rather than in the President's chair. 

Contemporaneous judgment of a man is apt to be of little 
value. One such judge will see him as he sees the near-by build- 

4i 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

ing loom larger than the distant one. Another, with the almost 
universal feeling of men that the golden age of earth was in 
remote antiquity, will judge him by a standard that assumes 
that all great men died a long time ago. It is impossible to know 
that one is asserting the verdict of history in writing of a man 
whose life and death fill the foreground of the present view. 
But if we follow the method here chosen and without any at- 
tempt to measure the late President by his predecessors, endeavor 
to ascertain whether his name is linked with a national policy or 
movement of vast import, and find that it is, then must we 
believe that William McKinley's name will be written as the 
fifth of the great Presidents of the first century and a quarter 
of national life. 



Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Virginia. 

WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

William McKinley was, in many respects, a typical Ameri- 
can. He was a man who rose by the force of what was in him, 
step by step, to the highest position to which any man may rise 
in the world as we know it to-day, being chosen thereto twice 
by the suffrages of his fellow-citizens. That, surely, was no 
mean achievement, and betokened no ordinary man. 

William McKinley served as President through one of the 
most critical stages in our country's history. It was a period of 
tremendous events, of transition, of broadening views, and of 
strange conditions and new situations. From the nature of the 
case he must occupy a large place in history — possibly the largest 
of any of our Presidents, so far, save Washington and Lincoln, 
and Grant by reason of his military record. 

What history's judgment of McKinley will be it is, of 
course, impossible to conjecture. It will all depend upon the 
fruit policies recognized as his shall bear, and concerning which 
his countrymen — one in sorrow at his death and in fierce indig- 

42 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

nation at the method of his taking off — are divided, and must 
for years remain divided according to their wont. No accurate 
estimate of the man will he possible for fifty years, perhaps, or 
longer, because only then will the results of his administration 
in a great crisis become apparent. If those results vindicate his 
judgment, he will stand as one of the greatest statesmen of his 
country and his age. If they do not, he will stand as an able 
administrator, who erred seriously but honestly as a constructive 
statesman. 

McKinley died by the hand of a wretch who was in all essen- 
tials an alien. He was sacrificed to an alien madness, the product 
of conditions against which his country and the institutions of 
his country, from the settlement at Jamestown to the Exposi- 
tion at Buffalo, have been a triumphant protest. In his murder 
and the manner of it there was nothing American, and no stain 
of it rests upon Americans or American institutions. 

It is no empty platitude to say that in his death all differ- 
ences of party and section are forgotten, and that the sorrow at 
his death is most sincere and profound. If proof of that were 
needed, it is to be found in abundance in the pathetic eagerness 
with which the people of every class have hung about the bulle- 
tin-boards during the week of his brave struggle with death. 
Certainly the highest tribute ever paid William McKinley has 
come from the lips of " the plain citizen " during this time. 

Day by day and year by year, William McKinley had grown 
upon his countrymen as he served them, and had he died 
naturally, instead of by cowardly violence, there would have been 
the most profound sorrow not merely at his death but at the loss 
to the country of his large knowledge of public affairs, his 
catholicity of judgment, and enlightened patriotism. 

But he died by the hand of an assassin — a miserable, cring- 
ing, crack-brained mongrel, not worth the expense of electrocu- 
tion. Surely this was one of the bitter and inexplicable ironies 
of life. The shame and the pity of it! 

43 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

His bitterest enemy must admit that William McKinley lived 
blamelessly and died bravely. While there was hope, he fought 
for his life valiantly, as a lesser man would not have done, and 
when there was none, he went " as one who wraps the drapery 
of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams," leav- 
ing the burdens he fain would have borne longer to other shoul- 
ders. May they prove equal to the task. 

And now it is for this country of free and equal citizens to 
deal with the devilish propaganda that bred the murderer of 
President McKinley. 



The Toledo Blade. 

WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

Facing the tragedy which has cast a pall of blackness over 
the nation, all political differences fall away, and the voice of 
partisanship is hushed. From all over the Union, men of all 
conditions join in expressing their abhorrence of the attempted 
crime, and in fervent hope of the recovery of the Chief Magis- 
trate. Like the lightning-flash in the darkness of midnight, the 
tragedy of this attempted murder revealed to all the true great- 
ness of the man and the implicit confidence of the American 
people in his wise statesmanship. 

Like Lincoln, William McKinley was struck down at the 
highest point of his career. Chosen for the second time to the 
Presidency by a larger majority — greater than any previous 
President ever received — he again entered upon its duties in the 
full tide of public favor, with nearly all the grave difficulties 
and perplexing questions of his first term solved and with every 
prospect of finding his second administration a period of peace 
and prosperity to the people. 

To his speech at the Buffalo Exposition the nations of the 
world listened with grave attention. His words did not breathe 

44 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

of war and conquest, but of the victories of peace which the 
nation is to win in the near future. He outlined the policies 
which are to secure these results, and which are the logical out- 
come of those of the past. 

Reciprocity, the development of our merchant marine, the 
Isthmian canal, and a Pacific cable, he held to be necessary to 
the future prosperity of the United States, and he set forth their 
importance in clear and fitting words, whose significance was felt 
around the globe. The nations listened with admiration, not 
apprehension, when he declared that our interest is in accord, 
not conflict, and that our real eminence rests in the victories of 
peace, not those of war. His words were his keynote for future 
action. 



The Galveston News. 

WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

The head of the nation is dead, not in the course of the work- 
ings of the laws of Nature, but by the cruel hand of murder. 
He went to his death not because of antagonism of him who 
slew him toward him, but because he was the highest represen- 
tative of a free and prosperous people. He represented the Gov- 
ernment, and it was the Government that the blow was aimed 
at. Hence the sorrow over his death is made great not only be- 
cause of the noble character of the man thus untimely taken 
off, but also by that patriotism which feels that the blow was 
at the country. Mr. McKinley will live in history as the beloved 
among his people. His name will be written without an expres- 
sion of excuse or explanation following it. He lived in a memor- 
able epoch — lived when the Republic may be said to have 
merged from youth into full and strong manhood. For within 
his terms truly a revolution has come about. The Spanish war 
— the marvellous material progress which has marked the life 
of the Republic within the last five years, were the years of his 

45 " 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

position in the highest of its equity. It was fortunate that he 
was cautious rather than bold; that he felt his way instead of 
rushing forward; that he had the faculty of inducing rather than 
driving; that he was conservative and matter of fact rather than 
radical and sensational. For that revolution, greater than even 
we can properly appreciate, could have not been brought to its 
present point without a jar to the fabric but in men other than he 
was. Mr. McKinley may not have been great as men are counted 
great. He was not the Moltke or Grant or Lee in military 
science; nor Talleyrand or Bismarck or Seward in diplomacy. 
He was a plain, every-day gentleman of the highest intelligence, 
and a genius in nothing. He was never so weak as to excite any- 
thing but respect from those who disagreed with him, and he 
was never so great as to excite hate from individuals or fear from 
his country. He was a good neighbor President — a home Presi- 
dent, a political President, and a lover of his country, who has 
contributed as much to its greatness as any of his predecessors 
who have gone before. And there is not upon all the land, 
north, south, east, or west, a man in whose heart a love of 
country abides, or in whose breast an admiration for a good citi- 
zen exists, who will not drop a tear over his grave and say he 
was an American — a citizen, and both of that type which will 
make the nation's name glorious and its citizenship the grandest 
the world has seen. 



The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. 

DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT. 

For the third time in little more than a generation the 
American people sit in grief in the presence of a murdered Presi- 
dent. In that solemn hour when the head of the great family 
of the State lies low in death, passions die out, resentment fades 
away, criticism is paralyzed, and the universal voice is one of 
sorrow. The blow struck at the faithful husband has fallen 

46 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

upon every home, the outrage offered the Executive strikes at. 
every member of the body politic. In the week of waiting since 
the first shock of the tragedy, the paroxysm of anger against 
his assailant has given place to fond solicitude for the sufferer, 
made more tender by the suspense of the intervening time, its 
misgivings and rejoicing, hopes and fears. Instead of the cry 
for vengeance, the prayer of the nation is only for a sacred silence 
in which to bury its dead, then a day to mete out justice only, 
and turn again to the burden of the busy years. 

Circumstances and his own fidelity have combined to lift the 
dead man's domestic life high in attention. All that is best and 
loveliest in the American home has had in him its finest type 
and flower. Home-loving and home-tending were bred in him 
through his Scotch Covenanter ancestry, one German and one 
English grandfather, perhaps made warmer by the stay in 
Northern Ireland, where one of his family went to death at 
Royalist hands in the stormy days" of 1798. Strong and homely 
stock gave us both Lincoln and McKinley. Nancy Hanks bore 
us the one and Nancy Allison the other. The President's wife 
has been an invalid for years, and his devotion to her is the 
commonest of stories. It was on Christmas Day, 1871, that 
their first child was born, a girl that lived only to the age of 
three, and another daughter also died in infancy. No act of 
"William McKinley has ever dishonored those little graves in 
the Canton Cemetery or cast a shadow over the gentle life now 
strangely called to survive him. Long herself the object of fond 
solicitude, and only a few weeks ago an anxious care at San 
Francisco, it has been her lot to turn from sufferer into watcher, 
and now to mourn the husband who, she had every right to ex- 
pect, would himself sit by her own last bed and close her dying 
eyes. This domestic story, raised by chance into full view of 
the world, is an object-lesson to the courts of the Old World and 
an inspiring pattern for the New. Its significance lies not so 
much in its prominence as in the fact of its typical character. 

47 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

For there are many such. Profligates are few at the head of 
American homes. 

But the tragedy has its wider national and universal bear- 
ing. A career has been spoiled, whose end none could foresee. 
From the gallant soldier-boy, assiduous Congressman, popular 
Governor, he came up to be an amiable and uniformly admired 
President. Like Lincoln, he was at the helm of State through 
a great and momentous epoch of our history, and, like Lincoln, 
a wicked crime took him off just when the fury of battle was 
to be transformed and guided into the channels of constructive 
statesmanship. Lincoln passed through one administration of 
storm and entered another, whose task was to be the readjust- 
ment of the nation to new conditions, but upon whose threshold 
he passed away, leaving the work to untried and unfamiliar 
hands. Just so it is with McKinley. The catastrophe of 1865 
to 1868 no one could foresee. Nor can we foresee to-day the 
way ahead. We have reason to hope for far better things; but 
hope is all. 

How impotent is man to fulfil his fondest dreams and bring 
to realization his proudest ambitions! Death marks the highest 
for his prize as unerringly as the humblest. Rich and poor, 
high and low, we all come into the world by the same gate of 
pain and leave by the same pale ferryman for the unknown 
shore. Buffalo sits distressed in the darkened shadows of her 
late magnificence, and the best surgeons in the land are buried 
in the ruins of their own hopes. The man who consented against 
his will to be buried for four years in the Vice-Presidency finds 
himself thrust in an hour into the most honored place within 
the gift of man. The policies that have been years in formation, 
and that vitally concern the welfare of all civilization, are put 
in peril of miscarriage or overthrow. Powerful cliques that have 
ruled political affairs in every State see the ground slipping from 
under them, and a widely different school of statesmanship 
coming into power. None of these portentous developments 

48 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

could have been foreseen; none, it appears, could have been pre- 
vented. The world has changed this morning over-night, and 
to-morrow's scroll is as mysterious and unsuspected as these two 
fateful Fridays were a week ago, when the Presidential party 
set out gleefully on its last journey from the White House. 

Above the solace that comes from the unsullied home and 
the blameless life is the greater consolation that our peace and 
order, manners and institutions, will survive the shock as steadily 
as the liner rides the summer sea. No wheel in all the compli- 
cated machinery that governs eighty million people will pause 
in its revolution. Upon the ship of state no sail will start, no 
mast quiver, no seaman tremble at his post. Among the com- 
manders there will be no irresolution or delay, among the lowest 
servants there will be neither question nor cavil. It is the su- 
preme and glorious test of our English-American civilization 
that while men, however great or apparently necessary, may 
come and go, the Constitution and the laws continue undisturbed, 
the people, as the source and efficacy of power, are constant to 
their heritage of law and order, and faithful to their obligation of 
civic duty. The Government remains, the flag is there, the host 
moves forward with unbroken step. 



The Springfield Union, Springfield, Mass. 

PRESIDENT McKINLEY. 

Well done, thou good and faithful servant, is the thought 
that rises from millions of swelling hearts this morning, of him 
who lies in death's embrace in Buffalo. Brave, loyal, Christian 
gentleman he lived, bravely he passed into the valley of the 
shadow, more than conqueror through Him in whose name he 
wrought. 

William McEinley the man, even more than William Mc- 
Kinley the President, has occupied the minds and hearts of 

49 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

men since the assassin's bullet struck him down a week ago. In 
the deadly strife of civil war his fellows knew him for a man 
of courage and a patriot, ready and willing to lay down his life 
in his country's service; in positions of trust, and finally the 
highest post his nation could give, they found in him a Con- 
gressman, a Governor, and a President of the truest, wisest, 
and noblest statesmanship; in his last suffering and death they 
recognize in him one who measured up to the full stature of a 
man, one of earth's genuine noblemen, whose career is an in- 
spiration and example for his countrymen to emulate. 

McKinley has again exemplified the old-fashioned but ever- 
new truths of the fathers that have distinguished this nation for 
a people ruled of God. Through all the long and varied ex- 
periences of a life spent among the scenes of war and blood- 
shed, and in the councils of politicians, where temptation and 
corruption stalk at men's heels, he has preserved the simple faith 
of his fathers and has lived a clean life in the sight of God and 
man. His course in these latter days, when guile and treachery 
abound, has once more justified the ways of God to men and 
proved to them that scoff the beauty and far-reaching influence 
of virtue. 

It is this side of the man's personality that places him in 
the affection of his countrymen alongside those greater of his 
predecessors, Washington and Lincoln, who, if they led the 
American nation in times more crucial, did not surpass our latest 
Chief Executive in the accomplishment of the duty that lay be- 
fore them. 

History will judge of William McKinley when the genera- 
tion that saw him will have passed away, but even now his ser- 
vices to his country for forty busy years, closing with his leader- 
ship through the most difficult period since Lincoln died, are 
recognized by his grateful fellow-citizens as the greatest that any 
man can give. 

Americans are proud to point to McKinley as the representa- 

5° 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

tive American of these days. It is probable that he is the last 
President of the generation that fought the Civil "War, and he 
links that time with the new and greater development upon 
which his people have entered. Like Lincoln, he did not live to 
see the full fruits of the policy he marked out. 

He leaves to able and patriotic hands to fulfil the task he 
so well began, and his memory will enlighten the path of his 
successor, who has taken instruction from that ripeness of wis- 
dom and patience of spirit. 



Buffalo Courier. 

PRESIDENT McKIXLEY'S DEATH. 

Our President is dead. 

" The silver cord is loosed, the golden bowl is broken." 
" The spirit has returned unto God who gave it." 
As lightning out of a clear sky came the stroke of one week 
ago yesterday. Hardly less heavy upon the public heart was 
the blow contained in the news of his relapse, for as the days 
had passed by hope had grown strong that Mr. McKinley would 
live, would recover. But he sleeps the final sleep, and the whole 
world weeps, for " he was a good man, and a just." 

In this solemn hour of a great nation's sorrow, let us speak 
only of its loss. Later will be time to consider the consequences, 
to think further of the insensate wretch whose murderous shot, 
directed at an invulnerable Government, could but strike down 
the man who was the chosen of eighty millions as their chief, 
causing him, all innocent, mortal injury and pain. It is so 
pitiful, so completely causeless, that even angels may shed tears 
for such a sacrifice. 

William McKinley has been the third President of the 
United States to fall by the hands of an assassin. The great 
Lincoln was killed by a crazed enthusiast for a defeated cause. 

5i 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Garfield was the victim of a dissatisfied, egotistical fool, whose 
responsibility must always be doubted. But Mr. McKinley was 
deliberately, diabolically, given his death-wound, simply because 
he represented organized society, and notwithstanding that, of 
all the Presidents of the freest country on the earth, he was of 
its people the best beloved. No other had come so closely to the 
hearts of so many of them. Against the immortal Lincoln a 
section of the country was arrayed. Not until years after he 
had been laid in the grave was there true, unanimous apprecia- 
tion of his exalted worth. Even Washington had many bitter 
personal enemies. McKinley had few; you might count them on 
the fingers of a hand, and dismiss them as inconsequential, how- 
ever widely a great minority of his countrymen may have differed 
from his views on various public questions. It was as the gra- 
cious, pure-minded citizen, that the people loved him; as the 
merciful man who shrank from administering chastisement even 
where mercy was undeserved; as the representative and embodi- 
ment of all that is admirable and lovable in American domestic 
life. Providence willed that as President he should direct a 
successful war, but it was a war of humanity, waged on just 
principle. He abhorred its necessity, and was grateful to his 
Maker for its cessation, for he was essentially a man of peace, 
with high ideals, who from his soul desired the welfare of man- 
kind. Whether his official course was altogether for the best, 
may be left to history to show. The excellence of his intention 
throughout his administration probably no living person doubts. 
Apparently favored singularly by destiny, which raised him 
from comparative obscurity to the most lofty station, it seemed 
that the happiest period of his life had been attained when last 
week he came, by earnest invitation, which accorded well with 
his own wish, to view the Pan-American Exposition and meet 
the patriotic throngs who were eager to greet him. And it was 
at the Exposition that he was stricken, in as beautiful a setting 
as the earth has seen for a tragedy of the centuries. While all 

52 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

America mourns, for Buffalo the cup has an added bitterness, 
although she is most innocent, for here the President was 
wounded to death, literally in the house of his friends. 

The President is dead, but the fell purpose of his murderer 
utterly fails, for constitutional government will go on without 
interruption, and law will continue supreme. Theodore Roose- 
velt becomes the twenty-fifth President of the United States. In 
the darkness and the silence of the present we seek not to look 
into the future. We only think to mourn our illustrious dead, 
and to recall his virtues, saying, as he would say for the land he 
loved so well, long live the Republic! 



Times- Star, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

" It is God's way. His will be done." 

In these, the dying words of the martyred President, the 
nation to-day alone can find solace and comfort. 

William McKinley died as he had lived, a Christian gentle- 
man. He faced death fearlessly and courageously, and in dying 
gave, not only to the sorrowing wife, but to the bereaved nation, 
the divine words which cheer and comfort them in this, their 
hour of grief and despair. 

William McKinley was a many-sided man, but from what- 
ever side we study him, he appears to advantage. 

Is it as the youth? We find him battling for his country's 
preservation. 

Is it as the man of middle age? We find him serving his 
country in the halls of Congress, outlining policies which have 
only the well-being of his country and his countrymen as their 
foundation. 

Is it as the man of mature age? We find him called by the 

53 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

people to rescue them from the gloom of industrial depression, 
to lead them through a victorious war, and to bring the blessing 
of American liberty to millions of people who had known naught 
but centuries of oppression. 

Is it as the statesman? We find him assuring for the United 
States a prominent place in the proceedings of the first Peace 
Congress, and outlining policies which kept the blush of shame 
from the cheeks of his fellow-countrymen by our conduct in 
China, and which served as a deterrent example to the other 
powers. 

Is it as a Christian? His sublime faith in Him who died to 
save mankind, his fortitude in his final hour were but the evi- 
dences of a life without a flaw, a life as clear and pure as the 
bubbling spring. 

Is it as the husband? The whole world knows the devotion 
which he lavished upon an invalid wife, whom even with his 
dying breath he sought to uphold and sustain by divine in- 
spiration. 

William McKinley's ideals were those that become such a 
man. They were of the highest, the noblest, and the most, 
patriotic — the uplifting of his people, the uplifting of his nation. 

He knew the inequalities of the world; the suffering and 
the misery of human life; the squalor and the wretchedness of 
the poor. But he did not inveigh against them; he did not 
preach discontent; he did not seek to change in a day condi- 
tions which have been the growth of hundreds of centuries. On 
the contrary, he applied himself resolutely to the task of better- 
ing them as far as lay within the power of one man; of improving 
conditions by practical measures and policies as far as was pos- 
sible during the short span of life of one man; of instituting 
policies which would advance the people and the nation even 
but the slightest, believing that a gain, no matter how slight, 
was one that would count for future generations. He was an 
evolutionist; not a revolutionist. He sought improvement; not 

54 



william Mckinley 



regeneration. He devoted bis life to the people and their ad- 
vancement; he offered up his life on the altar of his country. 

That a man who had such a love for his people should trust 
them was to be expected. William McKinley's trust in the 
people was implicit. He made no parade of it; he sought no 
political advantage from it; he never posed as a friend of the 
people; but as the years passed the people came to recognize in 
him their friend, their champion, and to love as well as to honor 
and respect him. 

If William McKinley had a fault in this life, it was his con- 
fidence in the people, a confidence that cost him his life. He 
was never so happy as when mingling with the people. To meet 
his countrymen and grasp them cordially by the hand was his 
highest pleasure. The presence of officers on public occasions 
•was always distasteful to him; they were forced upon him by 
more cautious minds against his protest. He believed he had 
nothing to fear from the people; that in their hands he was 
more safe than if surrounded by guards and spies. 

William McKinley was our first Congressional President. 
He looked upon that body as the representatives of the people, 
and was ever ready to yield to the body which came direct from 
the people and which was responsible to them. Much of the 
criticism which befel him as Chief Magistrate came from this 
fact — a fact, however, which redounds to his glory and his great- 
ness when the causes which inspired it are carefully considered. 
Mr. McKinley had served for many years in the House of Kep- 
resentatives; he had witnessed the frequent clashes between the 
executive and the legislative branches of our Government; they 
had sorrowed and grieved him. He came to the executive chair 
imbued with the idea that the establishment of three co-ordinate 
branches of the Government by the forefathers had not been 
intended to necessarily create a rivalry and a friction, and he 
devoted his best years and his greatest endeavor to obliterating 
this rivalry and friction. Under such conditions, a weak man 

55 




WILLIAM McKINLEY 

■would have been a puppet in the hands of Congress, a weak man 
would have proven a failure. William McKinley was not a 
weak man, but a strong man. He understood clearly the limita- 
tions of the rights and powers of the Executive; he appreciated 
thoroughly the rights and powers of Congress. He did not allow 
the usurpation of the powers of the executive branch, nor did 
he attempt the usurpation of the powers of the legislative branch. 
He lived up to the best interpretation of the organic law of the 
country, and established a harmony between the two conflicting 
branches of the Government never known in the nation's history. 

Those who have been most intimate with the President have 
long been aware of his one personal ambition. He yearned to 
have his administration known as the era of good feeling; he 
labored unceasingly to wipe out sectional feeling and to remove 
all that might remain as a result of internecine strife. He recog- 
nized that as the era of prosperity the policies of the party of 
which he was the representative had had a share. He sought 
to create an era with which he would be more personally iden- 
tified, to realize a dream which the prophetic Washington had 
dreamt — to unite the country in the steel bands of friendship, 
to wipe out the rancorousness and the bitterness of issues which 
were passed, and to proudly declare that " We now know no 
North, no South, no East, no West, but are all for a common 
country." 

A united nation weeps at his bier, in the tears that are shed 
by a sorrowing people comes the fulfilment of the life-purpose 
of a Christian, a statesman, and, above all, a gentleman. In 
the universal grief we are drawn closer together than ever be- 
fore, in the commingling of tears we are moved by a common 
impulse, in which shall be washed away the bitterness of the 
past. Perhaps his death was the sacrifice demanded to complete 
this cementing of the people to which President McKinley de- 
voted his best thought and energy. 

56 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

The News and Courier, Charleston, S. C. 

THE DEAD PRESIDENT. 

The nation is in tears. At the moment when it believed 
that its prayers had been heard — when the tidings that came 
from Buffalo were big with hope and comfort — rejoicing was 
changed into sorrow with the ominous announcement that the 
President's condition was once more critical and that the worst 
was feared. The smile that had come back to the lips of listen- 
ing millions vanished in an instant. The nerves that had re- 
gained something of their wonted steadiness, plunged and knotted 
again with intense anxiety. Throughout yesterday the people 
held their breath and watched and waited, hoping against hope 
that the clean, rational life which the wounded man had lived 
would avail much against the ravages of the Great Destroyer. 
But prayer and science and a people's love were alike impotent. 
President William McKinley, having fought in the hour of his 
last extremity with the gallantry, the steadfastness, the uncom- 
plaining, unquailing courage which marked and illumined his 
progress through life, surrendered to the inscrutable will of the 
Ruler of life and death. With sublime fortitude he bore the 
supreme demand that was made upon him. With a resignation 
which never faltered, he went out into the shadows glorified by 
the light of Christian faith. 

It is surely a grievous dispensation which has come upon 
him and upon the people, who loved and honored him. Having 
fairly won his way up to the pinnacle of human ambition — with 
the proof of his worth and well-doing vibrant in the acclama- 
tions which heralded and followed him to the uttermost parts 
of the land he served — he was struck down by fanaticism, 
criminally bigoted, viciously selfish, unspeakably dastardly, and 
depraved. In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, the pillars of 
the temple he had builded were cast down. The shouting of the 

57 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

people was hushed. The nation gasped in horror, and fell to 
its knees in humble supplication. It is of no avail that it shall 
rise again, with heart aflame and throat athirst for vengeance — 
that the voices rising to Heaven in demand that blood shall be 
repaid by blood will be as the roar of an angry ocean. It is a 
President and a Nature's monarch for an anarchist and a human 
pigmy! The evil that has been done cannot be undone. Tears 
may not be quenched with blood. Were Czolgocz torn limb 
from limb it would not lessen by one jot or tittle the pitiful 
majesty of him above whose bier a nation bows to-day in bene- 
diction. 

This is not the time to review his life or his work. To-day 
he should be, and he will be, naught else than a martyr. The 
love which his fellow-countrymen bore him while he lived will 
wax strong and all-conquering now that he is dead. To history 
belongs the prerogative of a critical analysis of his character and 
his public conduct; the present is entitled to no more than the 
tribute which honest men pay to the virtues, the courage, the 
manhood, the upright living which are reckoned the best and 
noblest achievements of human endeavor. 

And to the pity which wells up in every heart for the dead 
President and the profound sense of grief with which the nation 
regards its own bereavement there will be added another thought 
— a thought of the broken-hearted woman into whose presence 
even sympathy may not go, save it be uncovered and having put 
its shoes from off its feet. The frail body that has borne many 
burdens must take up another, beside which the others are as 
nothing. And she must bear it alone, for all that millions of 
men and women would so willingly sustain and comfort her. 
There is not a heart in the whole land that does not go out to 
her with unspeakable tenderness. 

President McKinley is dead. A kindly Christian gentle- 
man, a pure-living citizen, an able statesman, a patriotic ruler 
has given up his life in the discharge of the duties to which his 

58 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

fellow-countrymen called him. His life honors American man- 
hood. His character and achievements will live as inspirations 
to those who survive, and to those who will follow him and them. 
If any consolation whatever is to be found in so great a tragedy, 
it springs from the consciousness that nations, no less than men, 
may not attain their highest development save through adversity 
and misfortunes nobly borne and bravely overcome. 



Journal, Providence, R. I. 

President MeKinley has died for his country. It was at the 
office, not at the man alone, that a despicable dastard aimed his 
revolver, and freedom shrieked when the President fell. The 
great heart of a great nation is bowed in grief. In its personal, 
political, and domestic phases, the President's death is unutter- 
ably, inexpressibly sorrowful. It comes with greater force be- 
cause some of the most eminent surgeons in the land thought 
only twenty-four hours before that all the chances of recovery 
were in his favor. When the startling announcement came that 
there was no hope, the evening shadows fell over a heart-broken 
people, mighty in all that makes a nation great, but powerless 
to help the suffering and beloved President. 

The account of the President's last hours will bring tears to 
the eyes of strong men. Death is always tragic, but the killing 
of the President of the United States by a sneaking villain, al- 
though it is the last of a trio of distressingly similar crimes, is a 
shock that makes patriots thoughtful. Happily, it draws them 
more closely together, and in fervent, prayerful reverence they 
are grateful because in the face of such a calamity they know 
that " God reigns and the Government at Washington still 
lives." We seem so helpless in such a crisis that we can only 
look up at the sky and wonder what power it is that works out 
such deeds for our good. If the prayers of his countrymen could 

59 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

have saved him, if the sympathy of those who have admired his 
fortitude could have relieved his pain, he would not have passed 
away. The American citizen who has not been moved to ab- 
horrence of " the deep damnation of his taking off " and to in- 
describable emotions by the tragic sufferings of his last hours, is 
lacking either in loyalty to his country or in those tenderer sen- 
timents that whole-souled men are the first to feel but the last to 
proclaim. 

Rhode Island shares in the common affliction. No home, 
no factory, no shop is free to-day from a sense of sorrow and of 
loss. Everywhere that men rub elbows they have but one topic 
of conversation. They need indulge in no fulsome eulogies; they 
need not waste words in idle panegyrics; but they are not worthy 
of the name of " American " if their blood does not boil at the 
assassin's mad brutality and if there is not solemn grief in their 
hearts at the national loss. Their feelings are in harmony with 
the tolling bells. 



Chicago Tribune. 

DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT. 

After a week of constantly increasing hope, of bulletins 
which day by day have reported improvement, the President has 
passed away. The change at the last came suddenly, and when 
there was apparently nothing in the patient's condition to arouse 
extraordinary apprehensions. The rejoicing of the people is 
turned to lamenting, and in place of thanksgiving there will be 
grief throughout the land. The bullet of the assassin at last has 
done its deadly work. 

President McKinley is dead and the nation mourns. It 
mourns as one which has suffered a great loss, but a loss which 
is not irreparable. His work has been, to a great extent, accom- 
plished. Of the problems which confronted him when he was 

60 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

elected, or which have arisen since his election, nearly all have 
been happily solved by him. 

The war with Spain has been conducted to a successful con- 
clusion. The country is at peace with all mankind. It is tran- 
quil and prosperous. There are no threatening clouds visible 
on the political or business horizon. 

If the President thought of himself at all in his last mo- 
ments he could have taken comfort in the reflection that he had 
well-nigh fulfilled his mission— that he had done for the people 
all and more than they had expected of him, and had won for 
himself fame that time cannot obliterate. So far as one can 
read the future there was little of great moment left for him to 
do for his country during the next three years except to carry 
out that policy of the extension of its commercial relations out- 
lined by him in his last public address. 

The work which President McKinley left undone others can 
take up and carry forward, following the paths marked out by 
him. Though he has gone, the cause of commercial expansion 
and of the trade supremacy of America surely will find other 
champions as sagacious and as persistent as he and who, like him, 
will be willing to sacrifice selfish and personal considerations to 
promote the welfare of the Republic. 

President McKinley has gone to a grave from which " honor, 
love, obedience, troops of friends " could not save him. Theo- 
dore Roosevelt is President now. This change in rulers is sud- 
den, but the people will feel that their interests and those of 
their government will be safe in the hands of the man who has 
been lifted up from the second to the first place. 

They have no reason to fear any permanent shock of busi- 
ness or political relations. The new President is not likely to 
pursue an aggressive policy calculated to embroil the United 
States with other nations. Probably he will be as calm, 
judicious, and conservative as President McKinley has been. 
Responsibility engenders sobriety of speech and action. Pre- 

6 1 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

suniably the trusted advisers of the dead President will be the 
trusted advisers of President Roosevelt, and the new order of 
things will be a continuation of the old order. 

The legacy of President McKinley to his successor is a united 
country and a united party, an expanded and a prosperous Re- 
public, and governmental policies on which the people have set 
the seal of their approval. This is a legacy which President 
Roosevelt 6urely will use with discretion and wisdom. 



Kansas City Journal. 

THE NATION'S SORROW. 

The sad tragedy has ended. The life of the patient sufferer 
has gone out. The nation has lost one of the most kindly and 
lovable citizens, and one of the purest and best statesmen it ever 
had. His nature was as gentle and sympathetic as his mental 
powers were strong and vigorous. He was of, from, and for 
the people; his ear was ever bent to listen to their wishes, and 
their welfare was his chief care and constant concern. No other 
President of the American nation ever succeeded in winning 
the esteem and affection of the whole people, while living, in 
the degree that he has done. Every worthy citizen to-day is con- 
scious of a feeling of personal bereavement. Not only has the 
country been deprived of a great and good President, but every 
city, every hamlet, every household feels that it has lost a noble 
friend. It is inexpressibly sad that one so useful and so dear 
to the nation should be cut off in the prime of manhood, before 
the completion of his great life's work, and by the foul hand of 
an assassin; but fate is inexorable, and those who remain behind 
can only bow in submission and hope that the faith in a blessed 
hereafter which he cherished so long and so devoutly may be 

abundantly realized. 

62 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

The administration of President McKinley was one of the 
most trying and most successful the nation has ever known. 
Elected for the specific purpose of guiding the country out of 
depression into prosperity, he not only accomplished this great 
work with amazing thoroughness, but managed a foreign war 
and solved its important problems besides. His statesmanship 
won the profound admiration of the civilized world. Under his 
administration the prestige and influence of the American Re- 
public rose to an eminence never before approximated. Death 
came to him while at the very zenith of his fame and popularity. 
He would have passed into history as one of the truly great men 
of earth without the assassin's aid, but now he is also a martyr, 
and the present and future generations of his countrymen will 
revere his memory as one of their sacred possessions. L T niversal 
sympathy will go out especially to the invalid wife, upon whom 
the blow will fall with greatest force, for he was her all. Mill- 
ions of prayers will go up that her life may not also be included 
in the sacrifice that has cast so deep a shadow over the land. 



The Evening Star, Washington, D. C. 

WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

The country was prepared yesterday for the blow that fell 
at an early hour this morning. The bulletins from Buffalo all 
too truly told of the calamity that was rapidly approaching. 
Higher or warmer hopes of a people were never dashed to earth. 
And yet we should be thankful for the week that has elapsed 
since the assassin's pistol was fired. In that time, while we have 
been buoyed up by the fair promises of the President's recovery, 
we yet, in pondering the deed that disabled him and put him in 
such peril, have come into a feeling that helps us to bear the 
great loss now that it has come. It is not as it would have been 
had he perished upon the instant, without a thought of danger 

63 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

himself and with the country in a holiday mood of happiness 
and good cheer. 

An eminent, a beautiful, and a most useful life has come 
to a close. In the character of William McKinley were mingled 
all the qualities that make for righteousness and justice. He 
loved his fellow-men. He strove to do good. His ambition was 
of the highest order. His patriotism was unbounded. And so, 
full of love, full of energy, full of high capacity, full of pride 
of nationality, he rose by gradual well-timed steps from the 
ranks of the sturdy plain people to the place of head of the 
State. In every office he acquitted himself with distinction. 
As a young soldier he was promoted for gallantry in action. As 
a legislator his name was linked with measures of world-wide 
influence. As Governor of his native commonwealth he gave 
to the people a clean and wholesome administration of their 
affairs, and as Chief Magistrate of the United States — a post of 
the greatest difficulty and responsibility — he has laid the country 
under such a debt as insures him a place among the greatest men 
who have ever served it. 

We naturally turn in this hour, however, from the magis- 
trate, great as he was in that capacity, to the man. He was cor- 
rect of life, and true to every high personal obligation. His 
heart was always in his home. His constant thought was of those 
to whom his first duty was due. The most exacting of his pub- 
lic duties — and they were many — never caused him to forget or 
neglect the tender ties of the hearthstone. If every man, in- 
deed, were as thoughtful of those committed to his care and 
watchfulness, and as gifted with the sense of generous bestowal, 
it is not too much to say that this world would be something of 
a paradise. He gave not only to his countrymen, but to all men, 
a most inspiring and uplifting example of what the son, the hus- 
band, the friend, the citizen should be; and in exhibiting his 
graces of character in the house of all the people — the White 
House — he set his light upon a hill, and rendered in that way a 

64 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

service as valuable as any that pertained to the public policies 
of the Government. 

The President's last days were among his very best. He 
was in perfect health when stricken, and tilling an engagement 
which appealed strongly to his pride and his principles. His 
last speech was in advocacy of a greater America, and full of 
sound suggestions as to policies for national growth and happi- 
ness. It will live, and will influence our future. A final mes- 
sage, delivered thus by such a man in the very shadow of the 
tomb, cannot but have an abiding place in our memories. Com- 
posed and forgiving in the presence of his assassin, serene and 
resigned in the hour of death, he has departed, with the affections 
and amidst the lamentations of all his countrymen, and with the 
respect and profound regret of all the world. 



The Rocky Mountain Neivs, Denver, Col. 

"GOD'S WILL, NOT OURS, BE DOXE." 

The crack of the anarchist's pistol in the great music-hall 
of the Exposition hardly created more consternation than did 
the news of the President's dying condition yesterday morning. 
The night before the country retired to rest confident in the 
early recovery of Mr. McKinley. The great surgeons and phy- 
sicians had departed for their distant homes after giving to the 
world assurances of their illustrious patient's welfare. Vice- 
President Roosevelt, the members of the Cabinet and statesmen 
close to the President's heart, had bidden adieus to one another 
with smiling faces, expecting not to meet again until in the 
presence of their prostrate chief they convened in "Washington 
to carry on the public business. All of this the country learned 
on Thursday evening, and it slumbered until morning soothed 
with the last lullabies from the sick-chamber in Buffalo. But 
what an awakening! The morning papers banished hope. The 

65 " 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

failing heart, the fleeing strength, the weariness of death, the 
fruitless labors of the great physicians to counteract the fatal 
symptoms told the country that human help could not avail, and 
only the miracles which the Nazarene performed 2,000 years ago 
could avail to hold the soul of the great beloved in its earthly 
tenement. 

Last night the mighty tragedy ended. The President is 
dead. To-day this nation, and all Christian and heathen nations, 
mourn at the bier, for the world knows that he who is dead in 
life had been an exalted, an upright, and a compassionate man. 

A LESSON TO MANKIND. 

This generation has not witnessed more affecting or more 
impressive scenes than those at the bedside of dying President 
McKinley last night. Indeed, to parallel them we must turn 
to the death-beds of those great and good men whose lives were 
beacon-lights to illumine the path of humanity and who passed 
into the unknown with the smile of peace on their lips and their 
hearts serene with calm hope in the mercy of an all-merciful 
Creator. No Christian virgin seeking the martyr's crown in 
Rome's enpurpled amphitheatre faced death with courage more 
superb than William McKinley displayed while he looked upon 
the countenance of the dread angel. The poor clay, struggling 
to retain the vital spark, was as though it existed not. There 
remained only the majesty of an immortal human soul warm 
with compassion for those who wept, imperial in its preparedness 
for flight to that bourn whence none return, yet like to a little 
child in its resignation to the will of the Supreme Being whose 
it is to give and to take away. 

The watchers by the bedside heard the President striving to 
repeat the words of that hymn of aspiration, " Nearer, my God, 
to Thee," which has soothed and comforted unnumbered mill- 
ions. As his poor wife, herself lately called back from the very 
verge of the grave, clasped his hand in mute grief, a benign 

66 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

smile lighted his face, and he whispered, " Not our will, but 
God's, be done." 

Literature and art have preserved the record of no nobler 
scene. 

When we reflect that this man was neither ascetic nor priest, 
that his life was passed in the fierce struggles of partisanship, 
and that he had gained the highest prize to be wrested from poli- 
tics, we can only wonder that he preserved his inner self so 
sacredly a pure and holy thing apart from the conflicts which 
raged about him. 

Mild and impassionate at all times, yet he lacked not fire 
and daring, as was shown by his record in the Civil War. 

Personally the essence of integrity, yet it was fortune's gift 
to him to sail placidly on a stormy sea, which boiled and surged 
with the struggles of strong, scheming, unscrupulous, and daring 
men. 

It is too early to write of McKinley the political chieftain, 
nor have we the wish to do so, but as we stand by the bier of 
McKinley the man we well may sorrow that a nature so sweet 
and winning, a manner and bearing and habit of thought so 
courteous and kindly, and a soul so clean and upright, have been 
stricken bv the hideous crime of an assassin. 



Topeka Daily Capital. 

THE PRESIDENT IS DEAD. 

On the morning of April 15, 1865, at the moment when the 
spirit of the great martyr President took its flight, Secretary 
Stanton, turning to those about him, said, while the tears 
streamed down his face: 

" Now he belongs to the ages." 

So we say of our beloved President, whose lifelong service 
to his country ended last night as Lincoln's ended : " He belongs 
to the ages." 

67 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

The nation mourns this morning not only the loss of one of 
the greatest of its Presidents, but one of its purest, noblest citi- 
zens. No man excepting Washington and Lincoln in our his- 
tory was, during his public life, so close to the heart of the peo- 
ple. Not attempting to guide or control events, but not shrinking 
from the severest tasks and most exacting responsibilities, meet- 
ing every emergency with a resolute will and a calm sagacity 
and wisdom which marked him as one of the great statesmen of 
the century, President McKinley held a steady hand upon the 
helm and kept the old ship straight in its course. 

And what a voyage it has made in these five historic years! 
For the marvellous advance the nation has made since 1806, 
both in its domestic prosperity and in its prestige among the 
powers of the world, history will award the credit to the wise 
and sagacious President, the modest but self-reliant and far-see- 
ing statesman whose administration has witnessed these triumphs. 

Serious as the loss to the nation is felt to be in President 
McKinley's death, it is not this which afflicts every heart with a 
sense of personal bereavement. The President was beloved in 
every home in the Republic. His modesty, his benevolence and 
kindliness, his gracious and courtly bearing, which made no dis- 
tinction between the humblest citizen and the ambassador of a 
foreign state, his touching devotion to his wife, his unaffected 
American simplicity of life and character, gave to President 
McKinley a place in the hearts of the people which it is given 
few even of the most trusted and distinguished to win. 

The death of the President in the height of his great fame 
and usefulness is a sore bereavement to the country; it is a deep 
sorrow and grief to all Americans, and it is an awful and a 
hideous crime before God and man. 

God grant that this third deadly blow upon our country from 
the blighting hand of anarchy may be the last, and that the na- 
tion may cleanse its soil of this polluting brood forever. 

68 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

The Age-Herald, Birmingham, Ala. 

DEATH OF PRESIDENT McKIXLEY. 

Death closes the scene at last. Xot even modern surgery 
and the prayers of a united people could save the head of the 
nation from the grievous wounds of a cowardly, sneaking assas- 
sin. A third martyr President is added to the list, and the heart 
of the nation is bowed down with grief. 

It is much too early to define William McKinley's place in 
the list of Presidents, or to estimate his power in the conduct 
of public affairs, but it is not too early to say that no one among 
Republican Presidents and leaders equalled, or even approached, 
him in friendliness toward the South. He stood quite apart 
from his associates in that respect. 

Even before his nomination in 1896, he advocated national 
unity, urging all to work for the complete reconciliation of the 
two sections; and when the war with Spain came on he treated 
the South with the utmost consideration, selecting from the 
grizzled wearers of the gray several of his general officers. He 
insisted upon justice to the South, and the result was the two 
sections were drawn together and unified as they had not before 
been in over fifty years, for the estrangement antedated the 
Civil War. 

Many will recall his speeches when he came into this State 
about three years ago, in which he urged that Congress should 
care for the Confederate cemeteries just as it does for the Fed- 
eral resting-places of the brave. His suggestion was not fully 
carried into effect, but his untimely death may be followed by 
its full adoption. It would be a noble memorial to a good, broad- 
minded man- — a man of rare equipoise and moderation and jus- 
tice. 

He always had faith in Southern industrial resources, and 
his advocacy of an Isthmian canal in the last speech he made in 

69 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

this world shows that, if he had lived, he would have striven to 
benefit this section of the country. The South had good reason 
to love him, and it will indeed be many a day before a Repub- 
lican so just will be called to preside over the destinies of the 
country. The wearers of the gray and the wearers of the blue 
have united in the sad week just euded in words of praise for 
the man who entered the Civil War as a private soldier, coming 
out of it a major, and to-day, in the presence of death, the South 
mourns deeply, and affectionately even, the loss that has come 
to a people united in truth and in reality. He did more to unify 
the country than all of his party had done before him, and when- 
ever he visited the South he was made to feel in numerous mani- 
festations the gratitude of Southern hearts. 



New York Herald. 

THE MAN AND HIS FAITH. 

Death is always impressive. It is one of the experiences 
through which we pass, either with the grim fortitude of an 
unyielding will, if our outlook into the future is cloudy or misty, 
or, if we have faith, then with the trembling assurance of one 
who traverses the dark with a lantern to guide his way. 

There is an infinite difference in the mental attitude of one 
whose earthly day is spent and who faces the impenetrable 
shadows of an eternal night and one who knows that there is a 
to-morrow hidden behind to-day, and that the sun which gilds 
the west with pleasant memories will soon gild the east with the 
radiant beauty of a higher life. 

The heart that clings to immortality has an element of 
strength which is otherwise unknown. I have seen death many 
a time as it stole with slippered feet into a tearful household, 
and have watched the varying emotions with which the sufferer 
met the inevitable. I am free to confess that some who have 

70 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

said their last farewells, but have had no hope of a continued 
existence, have bravely stood the shock of fate and taken the 
step into the dark without a tremor of fear. In that supreme 
moment they have been even glad to be relieved of physical 
pain and to enter on the rest which is equivalent to oblivion. 
But I have also seen something as much grander than this as the 
grandeur of a symphony built by a master brain is greater than 
that of the cradle song with which the nurse sings the child to 
sleep. The eyes have seen what comes within range of mortal 
vision only in that hour when heaven discloses itself to those 
who are about to enter therein. At eventide there was light, and 
that light filled the last moments with the crimsoned beauty of 
a sunset cloud. Farewells were mellowed by the certainty of a 
reunion which would come in good time, and the tired traveller 
whispered of hand-claps in a better land. The couch of the 
sufferer seemed surrounded by " invisible beings who walk the 
earth both when we wake and when we sleep," and religious 
faith, ripening into resignation, parted the lips to say, as Mr. 
McKinley said, " It is God's way; His way is best." Then I 
have talked in serious strain to my own soul, and have declared 
that this simple trust, which can make us buoyant when the 
tears of our loved ones are falling like a sudden shower, is the 
most practical thing known to man, and is worth more than all 
else that earth can offer. 

To so live that to die is gain, and to be conscious that it is a 
gain; to be glad of the exchange of an earthly for a spiritual 
body, and to fall asleep in the certainty of waking in a higher 
and a nobler life is to grasp the consummation so devoutly to be 
wished, and to reach the ideal which God places within reach of 
honesty, truth, and fidelity. 

The President — the mortal part of him — lies in the shadow 
of death. We mourn him because he was the friend of the Ke- 
public, because his public policy was based on the best welfare 
of the people as he understood it. We revere his memory be- 

7i 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

cause in both his private and his official life he was the sturdy 
defender of the right, a man with a conscience. It is no flattery 
to say in this hour of our national bereavement that a sense of 
personal loss increases our sorrow, but as we think of him on 
this Sunday morning it is not in connection with the office he 
filled so much as in connection with the courageous manliness 
of the man. Simple-minded, quiet in heart, he was at first hope- 
ful of recovery, and did his part to stay the progress of his 
malady, but when he saw that it had been otherwise decreed he 
looked through the window at the green trees and the blue sky, 
whispering, "How beautiful!" Then, with the peaceful ac- 
ceptance of his doom, bade us all good-by, and with " Thy will 
be done," fell asleep. 

We shall cherish the memory of our dead — his life an in- 
centive to the youth of his country, his record unblemished by 
regrets. He has passed beyond the reach of time, and his last 
hours were made radiant by a faith in God and a certainty of the 
immortality which awaits us all. Such an example, such a death- 
bed, speak to us with an eloquence which cannot be resisted. 

That kind of religion leads one in the footsteps of the Master, 
both when He entered Gethsemane and when He ascended to 
Heaven. 



The Courier- Journal, Louisville, Ky. 

WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

For the third time in a single generation the people of the 
United States stand awe-struck about the bier of a murdered 
President. In the present instance the horror takes on a sharper 
edge of grief out of the sudden revulsion of feeling from hope 
to despair; from the confident belief that the hand of the assas- 
sin had missed its mark to the swift descent of the dread Angel 
of Death without warning and before our eyes; eyes that were 

72 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

but yesterday lit with the glad elation of danger passed, now 
dimmed and wet with tears. It comes to us as a personal afflic- 
tion, as a sorrow we cannot drive away from our door-sill. Even 
rage and shame are for the moment quenched by the pity of it, 
the sense of humiliation is drowned by the sense of humility, 
and, as we bow our heads in silent prayer, the virtues of him that 
is dead rise between us and him that struck the blow. 

Truly, the words quoted by Blaine to picture the slayer of 
Garfield apply to the slayer of McKinley with deeper sig- 
nificance and added emphasis. " Whoever," he said, " shall 
hereafter draw a portrait of murder, if he would show it as it 
has been exhibited where it was last to be looked for, let him 
not give it the grirn visage of Moloch, the brow knitted by re- 
venge, the face black with settled hate. Let him draw rather 
a decorous, smooth-faced, bloodless demon; not so much an ex- 
ample of human nature in its depravity and its paroxysms of 
crime, as an infernal being, a fiend in the ordinary display and 
development of his character." How perfect a description of 
Czolgosz, the moral leper; differing from Guiteau in the cold 
serenity and causelessness of his act, even as McKinley differed 
from Garfield in a gentler nature and a sweeter and purer grace. 

It will not be said by the most censorious critic of William 
McKinley that he was not a well-intentioned man, who loved 
his country and tried to do his duty. To those who had the hap- 
piness personally to know him he seemed very much more than 
this ; a man who brought to the public service a strong character 
and large capabilities, but who in his private relations of life 
was graciousness personified; patient, kindly, sympathetic. The 
notion that he was not his own master, and the master of all 
about him, was singularly at farult. Nothing could the better 
prove this than his fidelity to his friends. It is the weak man 
who kicks away the ladder 1 when he has climbed to the top. 
McKinley showed himself grateful to even 7 round of the ladder. 
In his heart he feared no man's rivalry, not even the accusation 

73 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

and appearance of a division of power. He knew as few men 
have known how to say " No " as if conferring a favor and to 
send the suitor away at least half-satisfied. 

He was the strictest, the most orthodox of partisans in the 
sense that he earnestly believed his party to be right. " The 
party, right or wrong," meant with him the conviction that 
parties are aggregations; made up both of right and wrong; 
and that as to the sum-totals and in the long run he was surer 
of realizing his ideals by keeping closely in the party line. 
Thus, though accessible to his political adversaries, and most con- 
siderate in his intercourse with them, he took counsel mainly of 
his political friends ; a very Jackson in this respect, without Old 
Hickory's vehemence, his obdurate likes and dislikes. 

Justly to understand William McKroley we must take this 
into account. It is the lode-star that sheds a flood of light upon 
all that he said and did. He resembled Lincoln in the stead- 
fastness of his partyism and the benignancy of his utterances and 
conduct. 

Opposed to him upon most public questions, both theoretical 
and practical, we yet cannot help thinking that his removal from 
the head of affairs at this time is a national calamity. However 
men may differ as to the new questions which are even now 
but half risen above the disk of the political firmament, there 
cannot be two opinions as to the proposition that they should 
be met with intelligent disposition. If in the nature of the case 
they augment the power of the Executive — though for a time 
only — it is of the first importance that that Executive should 
be an honest man not given to excesses of assumption, or radical 
experimentation. In William McKinley we had such a man. 
The promptitude and firmness with which he put his foot upon 
the third-term suggestion gave the country assurance that he 
was working to no ulterior purpose. It was direct proof of dis- 
interestedness. It stripped the new problems of all extraneous 
matter, sending a most misleading and dangerous issue to the 

74 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

rear, and put them before the country upon their merits. If 
Mr. McKinley had done no other service to the State, this would 
have been of incalculable value. 

But there was one other thing which he did for which he 
received discredit among thoughtless people. They said he 
" kept his ear to the ground." If by that it was meant that he 
tried to keep in close touch with public opinion, to catch, as it 
were, the heartbeats of the people, why not? What President 
before him would have dared to place upon the lapel of his coat 
and proudly to wear a Confederate badge? But he, too, was 
the President who restored Wheeler and Lee to the military ser- 
vice. He vetoed few bills. He stopped them before they got 
to him. He had no nominations rejected. Congress was with 
him, not against him. 

Critics, seeking to deny him the higher virtues of statesman- 
ship, called him a clever politician. And so he was. But was 
it only clever politics that was able to hold the Government 
well in hand and keep it out of a premature declaration of war 
until the moral basis of that war should be clearly laid and the 
people be thoroughly united? Was it only clever politics to 
pilot the ship of state through the breakers which succeed all 
wars and to bring her back into port intact and with so little 
strain that thus far we can scarce see any sign of danger, or 
even of stress of weather? What may betide, what may be hid 
in the womb of the future, we know not. We can only judge 
the sailing as far as we have gone. The elements may thicken 
and grow dark. The skies may be overspread. Perils may gather 
on every hand. But the sailing has been too smooth over seas 
that were so strange for anybody to deny the actual statesman- 
ship, however he may dispute the doctrinal statesmanship of 
William McKinley. 

The death of Lincoln was certainly untimely. He was the 
friend, not the enemy, of that part of the country which at that 
moment most needed a friend. Had he lived the course of events 

75 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

would have been surely different. There would have been no 
era of reconstruction, with its rigors, made possible alone by his 
taking off. Heading that dark chapter anew, we can see in the 
death of William McKinley nothing less than a national 
calamity; the removal from the head of affairs at an important 
epoch of a disinterested, able, patriotic man, who had those af- 
fairs well in hand; and the casting loose of the moorings of the 
ship of state, to be driven out among the winds and waves of 
a most dangerous and treacherous sea, pilotless, rudderless, domi- 
nated by partyism, factionism, ambition, and all the evil spirits 
of the vasty deep of human passion let loose, the hand of the 
master gone! 

He doeth all things well. Yea, but whom He loveth He 
chasteneth. Was it that the stricken South stood in need of 
chastisement that the kindly Lincoln was removed and the dread 
gospel of hate and force was set up in his place? And has this 
bereavement come upon us as a punishment, and the forerunner 
of other punishment to follow, for our high-blown arrogance 
and pride, our wicked forgetfulness of the homely, home-spun 
traditions of our being and our faith? The answer to the riddle 
we shall know full surely, and soon enough. 

Standing by the dead body of William McKinley, the man 
— the simple, generous, gentle man — our Chieftain yet our fel- 
low-citizen — we can only mourn; mourn for our country and 
ourselves that he is gone; mourn for the evil that has come upon 
us by this cruel and unnatural murder; mourning above all for 
that stricken one, that bosom friend, that wilted flower, cruelly 
struck down by the hand of the assassin, never to hope again 
until the angels shall open their wings and take her where they 
have taken him. God have mercy upon us this day, as a nation 
and as a people! It is too dreadful to contemplate. May it 
make us better men and women, now and forever, amen ! 

Hekry Watterson. 



76 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Boston. Globe, September 14, 1901. 

THE DEAD PRESIDENT. 

The death of President McKinley has sent a thrill of pro- 
found sorrow into the hearts of all classes of people. That a 
man with such a sunny, genial temperament should be the tar- 
get of an assassin, is one of the extraordinary events of our time. 
That he should be taken in the prime of his maturer manhood 
adds to the universal sorrow occasioned by his death. 

This is not the time nor the place to dwell upon the character- 
istics of the hare-brained monster who caused his death, or to 
urge that proper national and State laws should be passed to con- 
trol or exclude from this country men who are avowed anarchists. 
That question will come up and be settled and settled right at no 
distant day. 

It is rather a time to dwell lovingly and sorrowfully and sym- 
pathetically with seventy-five millions of people who mourn our 
Chief Magistrate's untimely end and deplore the " deep damna- 
tion of his taking off." 

It is a time for us to dwell upon the active and useful life 
which President McKinley led in the span of fifty-eight years 
which he was permitted to live. His record is certainly a remark- 
able one, even in this free and enlightened country, whose his- 
tory is illustrated with the brilliant and courageous acts of self- 
made men in numerous lines of activity and usefulness. Born 
in 1843, Mr. McKinley entered the service of his country as a 
private in 1861, when only eighteen years of age. In April, 

1862, he was promoted to commissary sergeant. In September 
of the same year he was promoted to be second lieutenant for 
gallantry at Antietam. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 

1863, raised to a captaincy in 1864, and was made brevet major 
in 1865. 

His was a continuous and brave service from the beginning 

77 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

of the Civil War to the end. It is a remarkable fact that in 
serving for this long period and participating .in many battles, 
being almost constantly in danger for four arduous years, he 
was never wounded, and was fated at last to die by the bullet 
of an anarchist. In his army service he passed through showers 
of bullets which must have aggregated tons of lead, and was 
never harmed, but met his death at the hands of a cowardly 
assassin in the midst of an exhibition of the fruits of peace and 
progress. 

With his career as a lawyer and his upward march in politics 
the people are familiar. His services in Congress and as Gov- 
ernor of Ohio made him one of the most prominent public men 
in the country. First elected President in 1896, in 1898 he did 
what he could to prevent the Spanish War, because he was 
familiar from his own experiences with the horrors of strife, 
but when it came he endeavored to do his whole duty with intel- 
ligence, patriotism, and at a great sacrifice of mental and phys- 
ical force. 

Emerson says, " If a man wishes friends, he must be a friend 
himself." William McKinley evidently believed this sentiment, 
and carried it out faithfully from the beginning of his life to 
the end. When thanked the other day by a man to whom he 
had been a good friend he simply replied, " My friends have 
been very good to me." A man who doesn't stand by his friends 
in religion, in politics, in business, and in social life, in adversity 
and prosperity, has something lacking in his makeup, which pre- 
vents a successful and perfectly rounded life. President McKin- 
ley met this test in a superb and striking manner. 

The President of the United States has to live in the " bright 
sunlight of publicity " every day, and it is due to this fact that 
Mr. McKinley's domestic life became familiar to the rank and 
file of the American people. His ceaseless devotion to his wife 
under all circumstances, in health and in sickness, endeared him 
more especially to the women of the country over whose destinies 

78 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

lie presided. In his case the husband remained the lover, sin- 
cerely and completely, and he set an example to the men of 
this and succeeding generations, which must always have a 
beneficial effect upon the homes of the American people. 

I have always maintained that any man, no matter how rich 
or powerful he may become, no matter what positions of power 
he may hold, will, as he draws near the end of his life, find 
the most satisfaction in reviewing the acts where he has been 
helpful and kind to those who are weaker and poorer than he is. 
President MeKinley's life has been filled with acts of kindness 
which make up one of the brightest and most satisfactory pages 
of his busy life. He will be sincerely mourned by the American 
people as a whole, but his memory will be especially prized by 
the host of people whose burdens were lifted and into whose 
lives bright rays of sunshine came from the kind heart of "Will- 
iam McKinley. 



Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pa. 

PRESIDENT McKINLEY DEAD. 

President McKinley is dead. It is a shock not only to our 
own country, but to every civilized government in the world, 
for other governments have learned first to respect and then 
to admire the man who has met them in the field of diplomacy, 
who has shown them the way out of the Chinese question, who 
has handled the Spanish problem with such marked ability, and 
who, in the very last speech that he was ever destined to make, 
that delivered at Buffalo on the day before he was shot down, 
breathed to the whole world a spirit of peace and good-will, and 
gave assurance that this great country of ours did not intend to 
fight, unfairly for trade, but that in reciprocity there should be 
cordial dealings. 

It has seemed, since the bullet of the assassin found its mark 

79 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

and while the President has been lingering between life and 
death, that the nation could not spare him. The people have 
remembered what he has done, and that in the consummation 
of his policies the greatest prosperity that we have ever known 
has come to us. He will go down to history and will remain in 
their memories as one of the great Presidents. 

For it is not the leading of men in times of a crisis such as 
convulsed the nation in the 60's that alone makes a President 
great. Peace also hath its victories, and also calls for wise states- 
manship, and it is the wisdom displayed by the McKinley ad- 
ministration that has brought such widespread blessings to our 
shores. 

McKinley has made few mistakes. He was not respon- 
sible for the Spanish war, but when it came he fought it out, 
and then came the problems that would have swamped a man 
of smaller calibre — those of Porto Kico, Cuba, the Philippines. 
It is useless here to go over the details of the Paris Peace Com- 
mission, to follow the instructions given by the President, which 
added so much new territory to our possessions. It is all fresh 
in the public mind — how the President was bitterly assailed be- 
cause he would not abandon the Philippines to their fate, which 
would have been continuous revolution or the forcible taking 
of the islands by other powers. The so-called anti-Imperialists 
have been overwhelmed with the now very general public be- 
lief that the President did just right; that, in fact, he could 
have done nothing else, while his determination to give the fullest 
measure of self-government to the Philippines has been made 
known by the work of the Philippine Commission. 

And during the solving of these problems the Chinese ques- 
tion loomed up with its dangerous possibilities, for there were 
nations ready to demand a slice of territory to the detriment 
of the great and growing trade of the United States. Long be- 
fore Pekin had become a slaughter-house the McKinley admin- 
istration had secured by diplomacy the consent of the various 

80 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

powers to the maintenance of the open door, but in times such 
as befel the representatives of the powers in China when the 
Boxers were murdering and plundering, such agreements are 
not to be relied upon. But it was the courage of McKinley, the 
splendid diplomacy displayed, that won a magnificent triumph 
for the United States and left the Chinese Empire intact, with 
a grand trade outlook for this country. "When a President suc- 
ceeds in practically forcing the whole world to his way of think- 
ing, he must needs be reckoned in history as a great President. 

His earlier contests were won upon the tariff questions, which 
made his name famous before he became President. He fought 
for his principles even when the election of Cleveland seemed 
to show their unpopularity with the majority. But he lived to 
see those principles triumph grandly, until now the opponents 
of his political party have about abandoned the field of free 
trade, and the commercial nations are welcoming his extension 
of the Blaine plan of reciprocity. Protection, honest money as 
opposed to unlimited silver, the extension of commerce, the 
building up of the merchant marine, the construction of the 
inter-oceanic canal — all these have become policies, some of 
which are not yet carried out. But the country will look to 
his successor to continue them. 

The President is dead. Long live the President! Turn we 
now to Roosevelt, for although the nation mourns as it has 
mourned only upon few occasions before, the nation itself it not 
dead. It must go on living. And so, what of Roosevelt? 

There will be those to feel nervous, for financial circles are 
quick to take alarm. It will be recalled of Roosevelt at first 
blush that he is essentially the " rough rider," the man of war, 
the intense American, the possible jingo, and the fear will be 
expressed that in dealing with the South American troubles, 
which must now fall to him, there will be danger that the coun- 
try will be plunged into serious difficulties. But it must also 
be recalled that Roosevelt is a man of experience in public life, 

81 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

that he is a student, that as Governor of New York he made a 
distinct success, and that, accepting as he must do, the unfinished 
work of McKinley, he will feel in duty bound to carry on that 
work to its legitimate conclusion. 

Changes of administration always create some nervousness, 
but in the case of Roosevelt we believe that he will have no de- 
sire to stray in any way from the high standard set, and that a 
wise conservatism will prevail. 

The nation mourns — but the nation is safe. 



Milwaukee Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis. 

A NATION MOURNS. 

President McKinley is dead. For the third time in less than 
half a century the hand of an assassin has brutally murdered the 
chief chosen by the American people as a fit man to preside 
over the destinies of the nation. 

Born in humble circumstances of poor parents, President 
McKinley was a shining example of the success that can be 
achieved in the United States by those who earnestly, conscien- 
tiously, and industriously strive for success along right lines. 
His life and works give the lie to the slanderers of the American 
Republic who rail against society and attempt to light the fires 
of class hatred in order that those who have incurred their dis- 
pleasure may be consumed. 

Throughout his life President McKinley grew in mental 
stature and intellectual strength from year to year. His fame 
was not built upon a limited number of great achievements, but 
upon innumerable accomplishments filling out each year of his 
life from the day he offered himself as a boy soldier in the de- 
fence of his country to the time when he was stricken down by 
the murderous hand of a fanatical anarchist. 

This affliction enters every home in the land. To-day the 

82 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

American people mourn as one family for the head of the house- 
hold. In such an hour, with a great national sorrow oppressing 
the people, it is natural to turn for comfort to the words of 
that other martyred President who, in addressing the frantic 
people of New York when the great Lincoln was stricken, 
calmed them with the assurance, " God reigns and the Govern- 
ment at Washington still lives! " 



Illinois State Journal, Springfield, III. 

ASSASSIN STRUCK AT THE PEOPLE THROUGH 
THEIR PRESIDENT. 

Another good man has suffered the extreme of mortality for 
the people of this nation and the mortal frame of William McKin- 
ley lies cold because a wicked assassin took away the precious 
boon of life conferred by the Creator. Without even the poor 
excuse of resentment for some fancied wrong or slight, with- 
out any grievance, either real or imaginary, against his victim, 
without the shadow of malice against the man whose life he 
sought, the cowardly villain put a bullet in the body of the 
executive he should have honored and respected while the gener- 
ous official stood with hand outstretched in kindly welcome to 
the hand that smote. It is an awful thought that a creature en- 
dowed with God-given intelligence could so far forget the rights 
of others and the duty he owes to the Great Judge as to stand 
before his victim in public and with professed friendship and 
respect speed the murderous bullet; and yet, such a man lives 
and has his friends, admirers, and endorsers. 

William McKinley was the choice of the intelligent freemen 
of America for the highest office in the gift of the Republic. He 
administered the great responsibilities of that post with such skill 
and fidelity as to win approval from a greater number of elec- 
tors than even the great majority which established him in office 

33 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

upon his first candidacy. The verdict of the people of the na- 
tion was that William MeKinley was wise, just, and safe; that 
his policies and methods were satisfactory, and that a very large 
majority preferred to retain him rather than to permit a change 
to be made. The people were entitled to his services as an offi- 
cial, and he was entitled to live and move and have his being 
among them until it should be decreed by Providence that life 
should cease. No man had the right to intervene and terminate 
that life. 

As an individual William MeKinley was esteemed superior 
to the average in many respects and was frequently conceded 
to be a near approach to the ideal. His life was honorable in 
every respect. His family relations were conspicuously tender 
and sincere, and his devotion to the good woman who shared 
his name and hopes, although unostentatious, was very generally 
recognized and commented upon. It was of that self-sacrific- 
ing quality which alone denotes true affection and unselfishness, 
and the object of such devoted affection was never allowed to 
suffer through unfortunate affliction because of some public ob- 
ligation. This characteristic alone was accepted by many as 
an index to the nature of the man so greatly honored by his fel- 
low-citizens, but it was not the only indication of the good- 
ness of heart which dominated the gentle spirit at the head of 
public affairs in the United States. The President was a godly 
man. He identified himself with one of the great Christian 
denominations, and was a sincere worshipper at the divine altar. 
No man could preside acceptably over the welfare of 70,000,000 
of people who was not at heart a good man and a believer in 
the divine Ruler. William McKinley's faith was well placed 
and it was firm. The pathetic scenes around the deathbed of 
the expiring executive show that his heart was right, and that 
his spirit was at peace with its Maker. 

Mingled with the tears of the people of this country who 
loved, respected, and honored their murdered President, will be 

84 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

the sympathetic outpourings of the intelligent people of all 
nations of the earth, for this executive was known, respected, 
and admired throughout all the lands of enlightenment. But 
the people of other nations will feel more than an ordinary 
interest in the fatal termination of this assassination because 
the crack of the pistol represents the hiss of a venomous reptile 
which seeks to destroy popular government in the form which 
has been developed gradually through more than a century of 
national existence. It will be recognized, generally, as an as- 
sault upon free institutions rather than mere personal expres- 
sion of a desire for individual destruction. It means that there 
is an element in the United States which awaits only a favorable 
opportunity to light the torch which shall begin a destructive 
conflagration in the anticipation that it may clear the way for 
the foundation of a nation of incoherent and irresponsible incon- 
gruities, a lawless band of destroyers whose only aim is to gather 
and enjoy the fruits of the toil and economy of others without 
even the form of justice. It is not known, either at home or 
abroad, how extensive an element of the population of this coun- 
try that lawless band is, and the outrage so universally lamented 
to-day is regarded to some extent as the possible forerunner of 
further acts of like nature. The tears of the mourners may 
be dried by their fears. 

Many prayers will go up from Christian hearts for the gen- 
tle helpmate who is so sadly bereft. Many supplications will 
wend their way upward for divine support in this trying hour 
of bereavement. Always severe to devoted hearts, the tearing 
asunder of such ties as bound the nation's chief in holy wed- 
lock will prove more than ordinarily trying to the one who has 
been shielded so long and so tenderly. It is the hope of all 
good people that the lady may be able to survive the shock, and 
that her life also may not be upon the soul of the slayer. Her 
loss is greater than that of any other individual or association 
of individuals, and she is deserving of the utmost consideration. 

85 " 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, Col. 

THE NATION MOURNS HER MARTYRED DEAD. 

The death of President McKinley has plunged the nation 
into heartfelt grief. He has died a martyr, for his assassina- 
tion was not because of any private enmity, but a blow directed 
at the life of the nation. 

It is a tragic end to a career of remarkable success in pub- 
lic life, which had promised many more years of active service 
and efficiency. But yet, in one sense, it is a glorious termina- 
tion. The name of William McKinley will go down in history 
coupled with that of Lincoln and Garfield, for the crown of 
martyrdom is common to the three. 

While in politics the late President excited criticism and 
antagonism, as any party leader necessarily must, he was al- 
ways recognized as a worthy representative of the highest type 
of American citizenship. No taint of dishonor rests upon his 
reputation. In his private life he was ever clean, kindly, courte- 
ous, and self-respecting. Few public men have been in closer 
touch with the people, in social as well as in political relations. 
There was nothing of the autocrat in the make-up of William 
McKinley, and not many of the public men of the United 
States ever enjoyed a greater personal popularity. 

In his domestic relations, more particularly, the martyred 
President was a model of what a good husband and father ought 
to be. One of the most cruel aspects of his death is the be- 
reavement it has caused where his affections centred, and where 
strength is lacking to endure so poignant an affliction. 

In the calamity that has befallen the nation every honest 
citizen must feel a sense of personal loss. It is Republicanism, 
Democracy in America, that has been stricken by the crime of 
Czolgosz, and every member of the body politic has thus been 
assailed. 

86 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

Happily the foundations of our Government are laid too 
broad and deep to be shaken by anarchy. The bullet of the 
assassin has had power to wound, but not to endanger the na- 
tion's life. 

It emerges from this trial, as from all others, stronger and 
purer from the test. 

The blood of its martyrs is the seed of its liberty and the 
cement of its unity. 

North and South, East and "West, are merged in the com- 
mon sorrow. 

Every such event draws citizens closer together by those 
" mystic chords of sympathy " to which the immortal Lincoln 
so eloquently referred in one of the noblest of orations. 



Chicago Inter-Ocean, Chicago, 111. 

WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

William McKinley is dead. The Chief Magistrate, chosen 
by 80,000,000 freemen to guide and govern their common- 
wealth, has fallen at his post of duty. The most benevolent of 
America's public servants has been cut off in the midst of his 
humane career. 

Benevolence was the strongest trait of William McKanley's 
character. In private and in public life his chief aim was to 
add to the sum of human happiness. His whole public career 
was devoted to efforts to make his countrymen more prosperous 
— to make life easier, happier, and brighter for all about him. 
And in these efforts he greatly succeeded. 

Under his guidance, his countrymen enjoyed more comfort 
and more happiness than ever before in the history of the United 
States. The material prosperity of the American people under 
his administration is a thrice-told tale. Under the policies for 

87 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

which he stood this nation advanced as never before. Nor was 
the advancement wholly material. For with prosperity came 
leisure and opportunity for mental and spiritual progress such 
as millions had never before known. 

Nor were the achievements of William McKinley's adminis- 
tration confined to the boundaries of the Republic. Under it 
the people rose in their might and gave freedom to alien mill- 
ions for centuries ground beneath the heel of despotism. Cuba, 
Porto Rico, and the isles of the Philippines were liberated both 
from their European tyrants and from the baser elements among 
their own people. This nation led the way to the rescue of 
civilization from Mongolian barbarism. The prestige of the Re- 
public was enhanced throughout the earth. The area of free- 
dom was enlarged and its pillars everywhere were strengthened. 

Yet in this hour of sorrow the people's thought must turn 
from William McKinley the statesman to William McKinley 
the man. In word and deed his life was pure. Amid all the 
criticism of his public acts his personal integrity was never ques- 
tioned. Amid all the temptations of lofty station his cleanli- 
ness and rectitude of personal conduct were never doubted. 
William McKinley the statesman had many opponents and some 
enemies. William McKinley the man deserved the enmity of 
no human being. 

He loved justice, but his errors, when he erred, were ever 
on the side of mercy. He loved his country with all his heart 
and soul, and strove ever for her welfare and honor. He loved 
mankind, and his last public utterance was a prayer for the 
peace and happiness of all the human race, while his first word 
after receiving the fatal blow was a command that mercy be 
shown his assassin. 

That this just and merciful man, whose every thought was 
good-will itself, should have been so cruelly torn from the sta- 
tion he adorned, from the nation he loved, and from the mill- 
ions who loved him, but adds to the horror and detestation felt 

88 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

for the crime and the criminals. For with William McKinley's 
blood more than one hand is stained. 

Yet of these base and infamous men none wishes to think 
now. Better, far better, is it to think of the good man who 
has gone to the reward which his steadfast faith had won. 
About his bier the nations mourn. Yet his life and deeds re- 
main in memory as a worthy example to the present and 
posterity. 



The Dispatch, Pittsburg, Pa. 

THE NATION'S DEAD. 

At 2.15 o'clock this morning the struggle for life was over. 
The public during the past week passed from the daze of shock 
to the earliest hopes, thence as the progress seemed rapid toward 
recovery to rejoicing and over-confidence; then, as the unfavor- 
able turn appeared, to alarm, dismay, and, finally, as the last 
breath passed away, to despair and mourning. The high hopes 
of Wednesday make the fatal event of this morning the harder 
to accept. But it is fate. All that is left of the statesman, about 
whom less than eight days ago thousands were thronging in 
affection and admiration, is the dull and insensate clay. To this 
and to memory the nation must pay the final and mournful 
honors. 

William McKinley's public life extended over the past twen- 
ty-five years, and for the last eleven years had been a leading 
part of the history of the country. But his personal record 
since he reached adult age is a part of the memory which the 
nation will hold dear as a characteristic American life. The 
youth who, fresh from school, was among the first to rally to 
the defence of the Union, and who through four years of war 
served his country with honor and credit, is no less significant 
as making up the man than the Congressman whose industry 

89 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

brought him the leadership, or the President who patiently and 
even tentatively led his country through new and untried junct- 
ures to the solution of unexpected issues. All typify the char- 
acteristics which make American citizenship at its best, and 
show the highest possibilities open to him who believes in his 
country and himself. 

The statesmanship of the late President was of his time and 
his nation. lie did not display the bold and meteoric strokes 
of Blaine, the set and impassive determination of Grant, or the 
rugged and somewhat obstinate independence of Cleveland. He 
was disposed to approach new problems in a tentative spirit. He 
accepted the limitations of politics and circumstances, and was 
willing to modify his original views as progress might show to 
be best, or as practical need might dictate. But above the neces- 
sity of feeling his way and adapting his course to conditions 
was the guiding and predominant purpose of working out the 
best results possible for his country. It must be recognized that 
in this way he accomplished great results. The labors which 
Washington and Lincoln performed were greater than his. But 
next to them the record of taking the headship of a nation in 
the depth of commercial depression and carrying it through 
war and the untried puzzles of expansion to an undreamed-of 
zenith of peace, prosperity, and good feeling is unrivalled on the 
part of other American Presidents. 

It is one of the atrocities of this murderous lunacy that of 
the nine Presidents in the past forty years the three kindliest, 
most lovable, and most democratic are those which have fallen 
by assassins' bullets. The other six had qualities which were 
likely to inflame opposition, or dim their popularity. But Lin- 
coln, Garfield, and McKinley were of all men the three that 
should have been safe from the assassin's hate. And of the 
three, as already said, McKinley was the one who seemed in- 
alienablv secure in the affection and admiration of the masses. 



90 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Dallas News. 

WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

The head of the nation is dead, not in the course of the work- 
ing of the laws of nature, but by the cruel hand of murder. He 
went to his death not because of the antagonism of him who 
slew him toward him, but because he was the highest represen- 
tative of a free and prosperous people. He represented the 
Government, and it was the Government that the blow was aimed 
at. Hence the sorrow over his death is made great not only be- 
cause of the noble character of the man thus untimely taken 
off, but also by that patriotism which feels that the blow was 
at the country. Mr. McKinley will live in history as the be- 
loved among his people. His name will be written without an 
expression of excuse or explanation following it. He lived in 
a memorable epoch — lived when the Republic may be said to 
have emerged from youth into full and strong manhood. For 
within his terms truly a revolution has come about. The Span- 
ish War, the marvellous material progress which has marked the 
life of the Republic within the last five years were the years of 
his position as the highest of its agents. It was fortunate that 
he was cautious rather than bold; that he felt his way instead 
of rushing forward; that he had the faculty of inducing rather 
than driving; that he was conservative and matter-of-fact than 
radical and sensational. For that revolution, greater than even 
we can properly appreciate, could have not been brought to its 
present point without a jar to the fabric had he been other than 
he was. Mr. McKinley may not have been great as men are 
counted great. He was not the Moltke nor Grant nor Lee in 
military science — no Talleyrand nor Bismarck nor Seward in 
diplomacy. He was a plain, every-day gentleman of the high- 
est intelligence and a genius in nothing. He was never so weak 
as to excite anything but respect from those who disagreed with 

91 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

him, and lie was never so great as to excite hate from individu- 
als or fear from his country. He was a good neighbor Presi- 
dent, a home President, a patriot President, and a lover of his 
country, who has contributed as much to its greatness as any 
of his predecessors. And there is not within all the land, North, 
South, East, or West, a man in whose heart a love of country 
abides, or in whose breast an admiration for a good citizen ex- 
ists who will not drop a tear over his grave and say he was an 
American — a citizen — and both of that type which will make 
the nation's name glorious and its citizenship the grandest the 
world has seen. 



Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland, O. 

SHRINED IN A PEOPLE'S LOVE. 

Dead! 

For the third time the nation is bowed in grief over a mur- 
dered President, struck down by the hand of an assassin without 
shadow of cause or extenuating circumstances. 

Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, 
martyr Presidents whose memory will be shrined in the hearts 
of the American people as long as the country shall endure. 
Men of honorable lives and patriotic services, slain for no faults 
of their own, but because they had been chosen to embody the 
power of the people, and the blow that struck them was aimed 
at that power. 

For the crime against its own majesty in the killing of the 
President the sovereign people of the United States will exact 
the severest penalty the law can inflict, but the universal sor- 
row is for the man as well as for the official. William McKin- 
ley had borne his high office so well that he won the esteem and 
personal friendship of all. His death is everywhere felt a per- 
sonal loss. 

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WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

Here, where he is so well known to all, where he went in 
and out as one- of our own people, where he has his most inti- 
mate friends and not a single enemy, the death of William 
McKinley comes nearer than the passing away of a President. 
There is no vacancy in the Presidential office, but a friend has 
gone whose place will never be filled. 

To sorrow for the loss of the President, neighbor, and friend 
is added keen sympathy for the stricken wife over whom he 
had watched with such devotion and loving solicitude. The 
hearts of all go out to Mrs. McKinley in this, her hour of su- 
preme trial. 

Bowed in sorrow over the dead, there is one consoling 
thought. He who gave his life for his country was worthy the 
honors the people had bestowed on him, the love they felt for 
him, the place his memory will hold in their hearts. 



Boston Journal. 

PKESIDENT McKLNLEY. 

If hope deferred maketh the heart sick, what of hope grown 
keen and buoyant that is suddenly turned to bitterest grief? 

Had the bullet of the assassin proved instantly fatal, the 
shock to the nation might have been more startling, but the 
sorrow would have been less intense. This week of suffering, 
borne with manly fortitude and Christian faith, has endeared 
William McKinley as never before to the great, warm heart of 
the American people. Since Lincoln they have so loved no 
President. Their passion of sympathy, their yearning that all 
might go well with the stricken executive, have burned away 
the barriers of partisanship as with the consuming and purify- 
ing force of fire. " Ah, if he lives, if he lives " — men said — 
" what a power he will be — how we shall all be glad and proud 
to heed and follow him! " But it was not to be. He who 

93 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

would have been the nation's hero is its martyr. He has fallen 
in our cause. His murderer was inflamed to the awful deed by 
the ravings of alien outlaws, who hate the Eepublic for its or- 
dered liberty and its majestic strength. 

But this is no time for thought of vengeance. That would 
have been far from the kindly heart of the dead President. The 
people who loved him are too full of grief to-day for any other 
emotion. They are looking back through the crowded years. 
They see the ardent young soldier of Antietam and Cedar Creek, 
the student returned to his books, the modest practitioner of 
law, the hard-working District Attorney, the new member of 
Congress who made men listen when he spoke, and point to him 
as one destined for distinction; then the Governor of Ohio, 
brave in defeat, faithful among the faithless, clinging still in 
those cyclonic years of 1890-1891 to his profound belief in the 
American principle of protection; then, by the grateful choice 
of a chastened people, the President of the United States. 

It was William McKinley's unsweiwing advocacy of the pro- 
tective policy which made him President. He believed in pro- 
tection as implicitly as he believed in our republican form of 
government. Indeed, he regarded the one as the essential and 
inevitable complement of the other. When the pendulum of 
public sentiment, having gone for a time astray, swung back 
to the American system in 1893 and afterward, the ablest, most 
consistent, and most convincing champion of protectionism in 
all America became the logical Republican candidate in the 
next Presidential election. Friend and foe alike acknowledged 
this. The Mclunley law did not have to wait until 1896 for 
its vindication. The Congressional campaign of 1894, waged 
almost exclusively on the tariff question, brought overwhelming 
defeat to the Democracy. That was before the silver issue had 
come in to split the party in twain. In 1893, on the tariff ques- 
tion alone, William McKinley had been elected Governor of 
his native State by the unheard-of plurality of S1,000. 

94 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Thus the tariff controversy, ending in absolute triumph for 
protectionism, marked Governor McKinley out plainly as the 
nation's Chief Magistrate. The silver question was a mighty 
force in the memorable Presidential campaign of 1896, but the 
result had really been decided beforehand. Republican victory 
was certain, and it was no more sweeping on the tariff and silver 
questions together than it had been on the tariff only two years 
before. 

This is a great, significant fact which should be remembered 
in justice to William McKinley's public services. He will go 
down in history as the foremost protectionist of the later half 
of the nineteenth century, as Henry Clay was of the earlier 
one. Protectionism could not make Clay President, but it could 
and did make McKinley President. That is a fair measure of 
the steady growth in favor of this economic principle among the 
thinking citizens of the United States. 

But William McKinley was not a man of one idea. He 
brought to the advocacy of sound money in 1896 the same lucid 
intellect and earnest heart which he had given year after year 
to his distinctive policy of protection. The best sound-money 
arguments in that campaign were the arguments that came from 
the pen or the lips of the Republican candidate himself. How 
true he was to his pledges the record of Congress attests. First 
the tariff, then the currency were buttressed by legislation, and 
the prosperity which the menace of free trade and free silver 
had banished came back as by the wave of the magician's wand. 

~No sooner were those weighty problems settled than another, 
uglier, and more perplexing, pressed imperatively for solution. 
President McKinley's handling of the grave crisis that culmi- 
nated in the Spanish War was a flawless example of wise and 
brave statesmanship. He used his utmost endeavors to prepare 
the country for a conflict, but he exhausted every resource of 
diplomacy before he would consent to the striking of a blow. 
No clamor of Congress, no taunts of " weakness " or " coward- 

95 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

ice," could move him. He was too good a soldier; he had been 
under fire before. When he did give the signal he had a united 
country behind him — united as it never had been in any war 
with a foreign or domestic enemy. 

That war of 1898 left a vexatious heritage. President 
McKinley met the Philippine problem as he had met the prob- 
lems that preceded it, with patience, courage, moderation, faith 
in man, and faith in God. He was subjected for a time to such 
a storm of abuse as had poured on no President since Lincoln, 
but he bore it exactly as Lincoln bore his heavy burden, and 
he lived to see the vindication of his policy and to receive the 
overwhelming approval of the people. His re-election a year 
ago by immense popular and electoral majorities was the very 
greatest honor which the American nation ever gave an Ameri- 
can President. 

William McKinley was a great President because he was a 
great man. He was an unassuming man; he had no meteoric 
genius, he had no theatrical magnetism. He won men to him 
by the power of his transparent honesty. Here, everybody in- 
stinctively recognized, is a man who means everything he says. 
There were other men more scholarly; other men more elo- 
quent. What made William McKinley the first public man of 
America was the wonderful quality of his earnestness. Those 
who heard him speak before the Home Market Club in Boston 
a year and a half ago will never, so long as they live, forget the 
absolute sincerity and unflinching courage that rang out in every 
syllable. 

He dies with his great work unfinished, as Lincoln died be- 
fore him. But, like Lincoln, he had gone far enough to see 
the light ahead. The years to come will be easier than the years 
just behind us — thanks to the wisdom, the bravery, and the 
devotion of the noble soul that has departed. In our grief we 
must not forget our gratitude. 

96 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

The Constitution, Atlanta, Ga. 

THE NATION'S GRIEF. 

The death of the President comes to the people of the United 
States as a common grief. In the North, to whose cause he was 
espoused when Civil War raged; in the South, to whose people 
he brought a message of real fraternity; in the new nation, 
baptized in the blood of all sections, the name of McKinley had 
become a household word. He was close to each, without indif- 
ference to either; with the love of a father, he looked forward 
to the maturity of the nation over which he had been called 
to preside. 

The hour of death removes politics, but better still the love 
of a lifetime had extracted whatever asperity might have ex- 
isted. The high office of President was fittingly filled by a 
man measuring up to its requirements. To him it made no dif- 
ference whether patriot had worn blue or gray; he accepted 
the heart-loyalty of the present as the token of the future. There 
will be many evidences of the dead President's administration 
to perpetuate his name. He had an eye to the material su- 
premacy of the Union ; he had expanded the limits of American 
authority beyond the seas, but, greater than all — the greatest 
possible — was the binding of domestic wounds and the heal- 
ing of internal estrangement. 

Thei nation mourns for McKinley; the South kneels at his 
bier; the whole world sees a weeping but united nation. 

But government never stands still. With the closing of 
the career of the President, the Vice-President comes into office. 
This brings to the nation no shock of policy or of person. The 
people elected McKinley and Roosevelt as one in purpose, and 
one in policies. Theodore Roosevelt is an outspoken man; brave, 
and ready to meet every emergency. Placed in positions of 
untried trust, he has proven equal to every occasion. His quali- 

97 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

ties are of the manly order. He, like the late President, is full 
of hope for his country, and looks to a glorious future for it. 
In his blood there courses a Georgian strain. That he will meet 
his new responsibility there need be no doubt. Theodore Roose- 
velt will prove a worthy successor of William McKinley. 

To the nation itself there comes the lesson of responsibility. 
A government of laws can only be upheld by a people devoted 
to law observance. We have permitted canker to grow up in 
the body politic. We have overlooked the vile abuse of our 
institutions by men who sought our protection only to betray 
it. While the nation's chief was in agony vile men rejoiced, 
and brazen women, like the Goldman fiend, laughed officers to 
scorn. Law was mocked, and there was only helplessness to look 
on. There must be a change! There must be no compromis- 
ing with civic crime! The anarchist must go! He must not 
gloat over the grief of a strong nation. Herein lies work for 
the people! 



Chicago Daily News. 

DEATH OF PRESIDENT McKINLEY. 

With the death of William McKinley, twenty-fifth Presi- 
dent of the United States, a great epoch closes. The beginning 
of a greater epoch was foreshadowed in the remarkable address 
delivered by the late President on the day before the assassin 
struck him down. 

Three of the seven Presidents elected by the people of this 
nation since 1860 have been assassinated. Therefore no one had 
reason to be greatly surprised when a furious degenerate, who 
calls himself an anarchist, slew in cold blood one of the best 
beloved of the Presidents. The man who stands as the chief 
representative of order and sane government is in constant peril 
from any loathsome creature who, with boundless egotism, 

98 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

chooses to kill that he may show his malice against the human 
race. Assassination has come to be quite the most probable death 
for the head of a government. The lesson which should come 
to all from this latest monstrous deed is to modify extreme 
opinions, to respect the office of President and the man who 
fills it to the best of his ability, to sympathize with his perils 
and his heavy cares rather than to envy his honors and sneer 
at his supposed motives in his public acts. 

In spite of the hideous aspect of the assassination of the 
President and in the face of the universal lamentation which 
it has caused throughout the nation and the world, it is com- 
forting to know that for the victim the moment when the crime 
was committed was peculiarly fortunate. The policy of the 
President's administration had been crowned with marvellous 
success. Under its stimulating influence the nation had emerged 
from financial gloom and disorder. Successful in war and in 
great colonial enterprises, successful in its striving for the regen- 
eration of Cuba, successful in diplomacy abroad and legislation 
at home, successful beyond precedent in its foreign trade, the 
nation, under the guidance of its twenty-fifth President, was at 
high tide of prosperity and honor. Thus was its Chief Executive 
abundantly justified in outlining, in his address at the Buffalo 
Exposition, great policies for the continuance of national pros- 
perity and the enhancement of national greatness. That his 
words were wise is generally conceded. Having done much for 
the nation, his administration was ready to do much more. 
Thus, before the assassin struck down this earnest, great Ameri- 
can his fame was made doubly secure. 

With the greater epoch which must come from the adoption 
of the policies advocated in the last address of the late President 
his name will be inseparably linked. His greatness grew from 
event to event. Like Lincoln, he waited on the wishes of the 
people and was very near to them, since they furnished him with 
the inspiration for his work. This extreme sensitiveness to na- 

99 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

tional needs expi'essed by the strong common-sense of the en- 
lightened people is one of the most valuable traits of a ruler 
of a Republic. It may be doubted whether any other President 
save Lincoln had it in the same degree as did McKinley. 

He was a thoroughly good man. He was one of the Repub- 
lic's great Presidents. His death is universally lamented. 



St. Paul Dispatch. 

THE PRESIDENT IS DEAD. 

It is finished. 

Dead! 

The American people have turned to face their sorrow in 
dumb agony, speechless. From black Friday to black Friday 
they have listened, tremulously, at the door of Fate. Not all 
the time have they been conscious that the sun of hope could 
go down before so dark a midnight as that which separated the 
eighth day of their suspense from the fatal ninth. They have 
been intensely nervous, nervously excited, saying bitter things, 
and bitterly deserved things. Fearing the thunderbolt, they 
have let the lightning of their wrath vent itself against the ene- 
mies of the Republic and the enemy of the most lovable of men. 
They have spent their strength. To-day there is but one thought, 
one word. 

Dead! 

It is not sacrilege to say that greater love hath no man than 
this, that he lay down his life for his friends, nay, not only for 
his friends, but for his enemies, for the seventy-six millions of 
souls to whom his life means freedom, and to the millions in 
the islands of the sea, even to the millions of struggling people 
everywhere. 

It is not sacrilege because it is again the Christ-drama which 
has been enacted. Man has died that man may live. The week 
has been spent in a Garden of Gethsemane. The last words of 

ioo 



WILLIAM HcKINLEY 

this master of a loving people — did they not paraphrase the 
words in the Garden, two thousand years ago, " Nevertheless, not 
as I will, but as Thou wilt? " — " It is God's way. His will be 
done." In the first agony of his crucifixion, were not the words 
the same in spirit as those in the last agony of the Great Cruci- 
fixion—" Let no one hurt him " — " Father, forgive thein, for 
they know not what they do! " 

It is not the mere man McKinley who lies dead in the city 
by the lake, waiting the Arimathean tomb. It is the Master 
with pierced heart and pierced side. It is wounded Liberty, 
which shall yet rise and appear to the people on the road to 
Emmaus, into whose side the doubting Thomas of even anarchy 
shall thrust its hands and declare: "I believe; help thou my 
unbelief,"' Liberty which shall become transfigured on the mount 
of ascension. Who shall doubt that this is the " blood of a new 
testament-"? Even now to the people pinnacled upon the sum- 
mit of grief, there comes, not an angel of darkness, but an 
angel of light, showing them the nations of the earth, bound 
together by this blood of a new testament. William McKinley 
is dead, but not before he has led America to its place among 
the nations of the earth. When the King of England, the Em- 
peror of Germany, the Queen Regent of Spain can each employ 
the same language of " dastardly attempt " in referring to the 
assassin's deed, and when all civilized people openly recognize 
that this assassination is the attempt to assassinate the People, 
the infinite price we pay is almost worth the infinite reward. 

Dead! 

Dead; but still living, still speaking. The day before the 
murderer's bullet struck him down, the President of the United 
States made an address to the American people, which marked 
the summit of his statesmanship. It was more than an address 
to the American people. It was a manifesto to all men. That 
most notable sentence of all, " The period of exclusiveness is 
past," will subtly shape the policies of our nation and of the 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

world, in this new century pregnant with the world's destiny. 
Had McKinley made deliberate choice he could not have died 
at a moment more fitting. It was the psychologic moment of 
his career to impress himself upon the nations as a great world 
force. The Buffalo speech was delivered in the Parliament of 
Man, for the Federation of the World. 

We may feel that God was unkind to permit this crime. 
Viewed in its larger light, must we not say with the lips silent 
now forever, " It is God's way " ? 

It is not too early to give to William McKinley his place 
among our Presidents and among world statesmen. The tre- 
mendousness of the moment enlarges the powers of vision, of 
judgment. He will take his place among the martyr Presidents, 
that glorious trinity of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, Will- 
iam McKinley. He will take his place among the powerful 
Presidents, that great trinity of George Washington, Abraham 
Lincoln, William McKinley. As Washington stood alone in the 
crisis of the nation's birth, as Lincoln stood alone in the crisis 
of the nation's threatened death, so McKinley stood alone in the 
crisis of the nation's growth, a milder term, but a period fraught 
with equal terror. As a man, the people of the world pay him 
tribute for a charm of personality, a nobility of manhood, a 
courtesy with acquaintances, a lealty toward friends, a tender- 
ness with loved ones, for a sweetness and serenity of spirit amid 
the irritations of a public career, under the criticism of a search- 
light scrutiny. As a ruler the governments of the world do him 
honor for his catholic spirit, his democratic sympathies, for clear 
vision, keen insight, and firm grasp in the larger problems of a 
world that is a new world. 

It is left for the people of the United States to love him. 
This they are doing with greater love and more universal than 
ever fell to the lot of a President. And it is left for them, the 
harder task, of a faith that good shall somehow be the final goal 
of ill, and that the blood of the martyrs shall be for a covenant. 

102 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 



The Times, Philadelphia, Pa. 

THE NATION'S GRIEF. 

A third time within the memory of our generation the nation 
is appalled by a murderous assault upon the President. A crime 
so wanton, so cruel, so unreasonable, not against one man but 
against humanity, leaves us for the moment stunned and mysti- 
fied. It casts over the country a cloud of sorrow and doubt. 
It suggests some awful catastrophe for which we are unprepared. 

The murder of Lincoln, at a time when the clouds of war 
were lifting and he was entering on a new era of constructive 
statesmanship in a spirit of charity and peace, was nevertheless 
the sequel of a period of bitter strife and passion, when the Presi- 
dent appeared to many minds the embodiment of a hated power. 
The assassination of Garfield, however associated with partisan 
dispute, was the individual act of an imbecile. We have learned 
too little as yet of the man who shot President McKinley at 
Buffalo to determine his criminal classification, and his crime is 
so far unaccountable. We can but class it with those other 
manifestations of the spirit of anarchy, the reckless hatred of 
organized authority, that have shocked the European world. It 
is a crime as inexplicable and as futile as the assassination of 
the President of the French Republic, and more appalling in 
proportion as we have supposed ourselves removed from revolu- 
tionary violence. 

It was only yesterday that the whole country was applaud- 
ing President McKinley's happy speech at the Buffalo Exposi- 
tion, its broad outlook, its calm and cheerful spirit, the sunny 
temperament it displayed. It seemed to mark the culmination 
of a fortunate career, that had carried him on to higher and 
higher usefulness, making him in some sense the representative 
of that wider life the nation has attained and of its broadening 

103 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

influence in the civilization of the world. It was a speech so 
full of hope and courage and good-will that it stirred the national 
consciousness. But a few hours later came the distressing news 
of the cowardly assault, and congratulation gave place to sorrow 
and anxiety. 

Mr. McKinley has happily outlived the narrow limitations 
of his earlier public life. The politician in him has grown into 
the statesman, and more and more he has broadened to the re- 
quirements of his high office. But even were it otherwise, there 
would be no thought to-day but for his virtues, his high char- 
acter as a man, his dignity as President. It is the President 
who has been wounded, and every loyal American recoils at the 
injury. 

Yet the nation is greater and stronger than any man, how- 
ever influential, however exalted in station. It was Garfield's 
own exclamation: " God reigns and the Government still lives." 
There is no peril in the succession. The country will go on its 
way in any event. But a shock like this cannot be without 
effect, and it must be in a sober spirit that our people take up 
their tasks to-day, awaiting with painful anxiety the news from 
the bedside of the stricken President. 



Advertiser, Montgomery, Ala. 

THE PRESIDENT'S DEATH. 

Yesterday there was a hush even in the places where ordina- 
rily excitement prevails, because of the painful news constantly 
coming from the bedside of the dying President. Everywhere 
in the tenderest tones and most sympathetic terms the expected 
news was discussed. It was the uppermost thought in the minds 
of millions of American people, and wherever civilization pre 

104 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

vails the condition of Mr. MeKinley was an earnest topic of 
conversation. 

All day the bulletins indicated that the end was near, vet 
so great was the desire to hear something favorable, that people 
lingered around the boards and thronged newspaper and tele- 
graph offices hoping to the last that some word of encourage- 
ment would come. Their hopes were never realized. 

At the hour of 2:15 o'clock this morning Mr. MeKinley 
passed away, gently and quietly. His last words were to her 
who for so many years was the object, of his unwearying care 
and attention. The gentle and afflicted wife, who was so near 
unto death a few weeks ago, received as his last message the 
comforting words, " God's will, not ours be done," marking him 
to the last as the Christian statesman whose life was consistent 
with his professions. 

The whole world has denounced the crime which took away 
from the scenes of life the head of the greatest Republic that 
has ever existed. It does seem inexplicable that one so gentle and 
so full of kindness should fall the victim of an assassin. It 
can scarcely be denied that Mr. MeKinley was the most popular 
President who has ever filled the executive office. His political 
opponents respected and admired him. Those who knew him 
best felt for him a genuine affection, and there will be no 
mourners because of his death more sincere than strong men 
who often combatted his political views, but who loved the man. 

The whole land is in mourning, because it is realized that a 
just man held the reins, and that now they have dropped from, 
his hand. He has been tried and they felt safe while he was 
at the helm, but we must remember that the same conditions 
have existed before and that under our form of government there 
will be no hiatus. The succession will be orderly and quiet, 
and we must patiently await the future, trusting that it mil 
bring a continuance of the good order and the good-will that 
have so happily prevailed in recent years. 

i°5 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Buffalo Express, Buffalo, N. Y. 

OUR PRESIDENT. 

The news of the death of the President comes to the coun- 
try with a double shock. It would not be half so terrible if it 
had followed quickly the shooting. But the world had every 
reason to believe that the President was getting well. Appar- 
ently, he was about to escape the usual fate of rulers in like 
straits. But, alas! the " McKinley luck" was too good to last 
on this occasion. The great life went out last evening, just as 
common lives do, at the crisis of the illness. 

The country first began to have doubts that all was not going 
well with the President about forty-eight hours ago, when it 
was found necessary to reopen the wound to allay the irritation. 
People said to themselves: " This is the beginning of the trouble 
which we have grown to expect in such cases. We saw it in the 
instance of Garfield; we saw it again in the instance of Grant." 
The calling in on Thursday of another physician, Dr. Stockton, 
was another intimation to the wise. The acute trouble began 
that evening in the failure of the digestive apparatus to do its 
work. That relieved, the heart next threw out danger signals. 
Its weakness was beyond repair. 

In this age of unrest and unreason, of running after false 
gods, of the introduction of hateful class distinctions, of the 
attempted Europeanization of our Government, it is a pleasure 
to recollect that America can still produce such men as McKin- 
ley, and that their fellow-citizens still prefer them to pretenders 
of the new school. William McKinley was a spiritual descend- 
ant of the men who fought with Cromwell, who came over in 
the Mayflower, who carved out this country with the sword, 
who laid its foundations in the Constitution, who defended it 
against sectionalism and its own baser part. His counterparts 
and prototypes are to be found in the history of every great 

106 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

nation, ancient and modern, at the time they had reached their 
highest stage of moral and intellectual progress. This type of 
humanity is characterized by deep seriousness, by singleness of 
purpose, by purity of private life, by utter self-absorption in 
public duty, by steady advances to leadership gained by modest 
merit. Such were " Plutarch's men." Such was William 
McKinley. 

It is an impressive circumstance that not a single charge 
affecting McKinley's public or private life was launched during 
the long campaign of political vituperation and personal mis- 
representation. We doubt if this were ever true of any other 
man who was so long in public life as Major McKinley. For 
McKinley did not reach his greatness at a single bound. He 
did not come up in a night, as did some of his rivals. He was 
content to make small advances, to serve before he aspired to 
lead. His career was typically American. He had the usual 
hard-wrought youth, he made his own way in the world, he 
prepared himself for a profession, he became a volunteer soldier, 
he took to politics instinctively, he loved one party and served 
it, he rose from one grade of the public service to another. He 
met his fellow-men on many grounds, he studied them, he believed 
in them. He placed his mark high and took no low means to 
win his goal. He was a man, a statesman and a philosopher. 
He had borne success and defeat with equanimity. He went 
into political retirement, for the sake of a political doctrine in 
which he believed. He beggared himself to pay a debt of honor. 
Never an extremist, he never compromised with his convictions 
for the sake of immediate profit. He believed in himself and 
in his country. 

There is no greater slander than to call McKinley a dull 
man. He seemed to plod because he wanted to be sure. When 
he knew his subject, no man coidd be more eloquent or ingen- 
ious in its presentation. He shared with Gladstone the rare fac- 
ulty of making facts fascinating, of rendering statistics interest- 

107 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

ing. This is a gift which is bom only of the most sincere con- 
viction. McKinley was the greatest living authority on tariffs, 
yet who shall say that he was a one-sided man? His papers 
and speeches prove him to have been master of the whole domain 
of statecraft. Such broad, searching intelligence, such grasp and 
comprehension, surely cannot fall short of genius! His courage 
was as undoubted as his integrity. He dared to do what he 
knew to be right. 

No candid review of the McKinley administrations can deny 
them the credit of being history-making. The period from 
March 4, 1897, to September 13, 1901, will stand out by itself 
in the annals of the nation as distinctly as do the administra- 
tions of Jefferson and of Jackson, the two peace Presidents who 
have most clearly stamped their individuality upon the nation's 
history. This is not merely because of the addition of a great 
colonial empire to our possessions. Apart from the colonial ex- 
pansion, the McKinley administration has had a striking and 
interesting individuality. The Spanish War alone would have 
made it memorable. The amazing industrial development would 
have marked it hardly less strongly. But perhaps the political 
success that has attended it is the most remarkable feature of 
all. All these characteristics combined give it a place by itself. 
There is no previous administration since the organization of 
the Republic which can be said to have been like McKinley's, 
except in remote or fragmentary particulars. It has been like 
Jefferson's in its success, but has been the opposite of Jeffer- 
son's, resembling more that of John Adams, in its aims. It has 
been compared to Lincoln's, but the resemblance can hardly be 
said to go beyond the fact that both were war administrations. 
It approaches nearer to that) of Polk, but Polk's administration 
had only a war to distinguish it and was otherwise a failure, end- 
ing in the defeat of the President's party. It has been like 
Jackson's in the power it has developed, but while the Jackson 
administration smashed its enemies, the McKinley administra- 

108 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

tion has generally conciliated them, leading many to compare it 
with the Monroe " era of good feeling." 

The Spanish War undoubtedly would have been fought 
whoever had been President. The industrial development has 
been for the most part the logical result of long-established Re- 
publican policies and, therefore, would have come under any 
Republican President, supported, as McKinley has been, by Re- 
publican Congresses. The colonial policy and the political suc- 
cess must be set down as McKinley 's own. 

McKinley attached to himself the business interests of the 
country — the men of wealth and energy who are the dominat- 
ing class in every community — as they never before were at- 
tached to any single political leader. He converted those fac- 
tions of his own party which originally were suspicious or openly 
hostile into his most ardent friends. He broke down the opposi- 
tion party till it almost ceased the pretence of opposing him 
whenever any important policy was at stake. He gained a 
mastery over Congress more complete, probably, than was ever 
before held by any President. What the administration asked. 
Congress generally did, regardless of consistency and sometimes 
of the personal judgment of many of the members. He domi- 
nated his Cabinet to such an extent that no single member has 
been able to impress his own individuality on any of the vigor- 
ous and successful policies that have been adopted, and even the 
dissensions within the Cabinet, which usually have marred other 
administrations, have been kept below the surface, if any have 
existed. 

The methods employed were remarkably simple. Where 
other administrations have been content to satisfy their own par- 
ties, or sometimes merely factions, the McKinley administration 
undertook, so far as possible, to give everybody what he wanted, 
or, if not that, something equally good — something good enough 
to check serious opposition to the administration in general. 
Conditions were very favorable at the beginning. The adminis- 

109 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

tration assumed office while the country was suffering from a 
prolonged period of hard times. A low-tariff experiment had 
proved a disastrous failure. The intelligence of the country 
was already practically united against the silver craze. Even 
in the Democratic South the business men really did not believe 
in it or hope for its success. The rapid development of pros- 
perity under the stimulus of protection and a sound financial 
policy was of itself sufficient to attach a great popular following 
to the administration. When men found they could make 
money where before they could barely continue business; that 
they could get good prices where before they could hardly realize 
the cost of production; that they could obtain steady work at fair 
wages where before they were much of the time in idleness, 
it was natural that they should feel that the administration under 
which these things had been brought about was a good one. 

Yet these blessings might have been forgotten, as had oc- 
curred in similar circumstances before, if great pains had not 
been taken to conciliate those politicians who controlled the 
organizations through which hostility to the administration 
might have been worked up. While the Democracy has been 
undermined in its strongholds, the Republican party in the 
North and West has been built up to a greater strength than it 
ever reached before. Wherever an opportunity appeared to 
attach a strong political or business interest to the administra- 
tion, it has been improved. 

All this was skilful politics — in some respects the most skil- 
ful that has been seen in the history of the United States. 
Critics as well as friends recognized that there was a master hand 
at the helm. Perhaps the strongest evidence of the foresight 
which has directed the McKinley policies is that whatever criti- 
cism they have aroused while in progress of development has been 
much lessened or has entirely disappeared when the results be- 
came apparent. This was true of the tariff, which has passed 
out of the list of American political issues. It was true of the 

no 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

silver question, which was defeated more disastrously after the 
country had had four years of sound money than when it first 
appealed to popular favor and has now, in all probability, joined 
the tariff as a dead issue. It is too soon to assert the same re- 
sults of the expansion policy, but it is a fact that the opposi- 
tion which it aroused has been to a great extent silenced by the 
general approval of the measures taken for the temporary admin- 
istration of the Philippines since the adoption of the Spooner 
Law putting all power in the hands of the President. States- 
men usually wait till long after they are out of power, often till 
after death, to receive the approbation which William McKinley 
was accorded at the very height of his career. 

What the future had in store, in so far as this great mind 
was able to direct it, can only be inferred. Yet it is known that 
he purposed to make a large expansion of markets by means of 
reciprocity a feature of his coming policy. That was disclosed 
by his last public speech on the day before he was shot. It is 
also known that whatever further successes might have been 
piled upon the triumphs he already had won, they totally mis- 
understood his character who supposed he might be cherishing 
an ambition for a third term. He repudiated that suggestion 
as soon as it was made in language which left nothing more to 
be said on the subject. He strove to serve his country; not to 
gratify personal ambitions. His name is written large in his 
country's history. 

But this is not the time, nor is there now the space to dilate 
on the character and services of William McKinley. Suffice it 
to say that he was the best beloved in our long line of Presi- 
dents. Political enemies he had, but no personal ones. The 
manner of his taking-off endeared him still more to his country- 
men. While each of us wrestles with his own grief, no one 
will neglect to spare a tear for the woman who survives the 
martyred President. Mrs. McKinley's condition must be piti- 
able, indeed. Her whole life was wrapped up in that of the man 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

who has gone, as was his in hers. Splendid as he was as a states- 
man, inspiring as a political leader, magnetic a9 a man, great as 
was his public career, the finest and the noblest side of McKin- 
ley's character was the devotion he showed as a husband. 

As for the treacherous assassin and his God-accursed, man- 
hating kind, there will be no paltering in dealing with them now. 



Indianapolis News. 

WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

How much of good utterly perishes when a good man dies! 
How sheer the waste is when a man in the full maturity of 
life is cut off! The result of what he has done lives, but with 
him ends the ripeness of thought, the richness of attainment 
that we call experience, the scope of judgment and power of 
conclusion that he alone may deliver, as the problems of life 
pass through the alembic of his mind. It is this that is the irrep- 
arable loss. Other men may discharge the duties; nothing in 
this sense depends on any one man. But what might have been 
had this one man still lived to apply the sum of his wisdom, 
appeals to the reflection as well as the imagination to sharpen 
the edge of untimely death as the severance of the affections 
sharpens it, and realizes the full weight of the aphorism that 
" not all the preaching since Adam has made death other than 

death." 

Of William McKinley, early in his public career, it was said 
by James A. Garfield, who knew him well and who had the 
power of knowledge: 

" In him we find the best representative of the possibilities 
of American life. Boy and man, he typifies American youth 
and manhood, and illustrates the benefits and glory of our free 
institutions. He did not flash forth as a meteor; he rose with 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

measured and stately step over rough paths and through years 
of rugged work. He earned his passage to every preferment. 
He was tried and tested at every step in his pathway of progress. 
He produced his passport to every gateway to opportunity and 
glory." 

Every word of this is true — so true that it might have been 
spoken now at the completion of McKinley's life. But that 
which is implied is the larger truth, and that is the full-rounded, 
well-balanced, exactly attempered personality. A view of his 
life as we know it from his earliest to his latest day shows this 
forth. There was neither precocity nor promise in his youth 
above that of others. He had one supreme advantage, he was 
well-born, in the circumstance which the wise man coveted in 
the words: " Give me neither poverty nor riches." The alter- 
native statement is: " Remove far from me vanity and lies." 
This was the happy lot of William McKinley. The " destruc- 
tion of the poor, which is their poverty," he knew not, nor did 
he feel the temptations of wealth. 

A schoolboy in his " teens," he seemed to have no other 
thought than that he owed a duty to his country, and within 
three months of the firing on Sumter, was in the field, a private 
in the ranks ; but he did not prove to be a " little corporal," 
as his admirers so often called him from his fancied resemblance 
to Napoleon. He was not a genius in any sense, military or civil; 
just a sturdy American boy. But, thanks to the happy chance 
of his descent, he had a training imbued with the spirit of 
steady subordination and tireless devotion that could be counted 
on for the full discharge of every obligation. It took him four 
years to become a major, and he had attracted attention only as 
a brave, obedient soldier, ready and instant always. 

As a four years' veteran he began life at twenty-two by 
studying law. This he went about by deliberate choice, duly 
educating himself for his work. In his career at the bar he 
developed power as an advocate; and yet, here, as in all else, 

113 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

there was nothing unusual. He was not brilliant. He had a 
fine manner, and a distinguished presence. He had, moreover, 
a quality of sweetness added to the serious impression that he 
produced, which seasoned it always and commended it to the 
moral nature. He did not in the beginning, nor in the end, 
leave the impression of a great man. He did leave always the 
impression of a clean, sane, sincere nature, one that viewed life 
and his relation to it with a solemn sense of responsibility, that 
carried with it always assurance of his undeviating devotion. 

The generation beginning the real work of the life of to-day 
can hardly realize the prominence that politics occupied in the 
life of the generation that began work in the decade after the 
Civil War. The public mind was in a ferment; the grave 
questions raised by the war were all up for settlement; the 
prodigious expanse of the country was for the first time open 
to the common comprehension. A young man could get a hear- 
ing then. Here again this young man was fortunate. He had 
a comeliness of person like Hamlet, but better than this, he had 
Horatio's quality — he was blest with those 

Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled, 
That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger 
To sound what stop she please. 

Strikingly handsome, yet with all suggestion of manliness, with 
a rich tenor voice full and vibrant, he had a seriousness and 
sweetness of manner, above all an impression of conviction and 
sincerity that won him instant attention. And yet as a speaker 
he grew slowly; known first in his little town, then by degrees 
in his county, and only by accident recommended to those whose 
command of opportunities could give him a wider audience. 

His first political preferment — nomination for prosecuting 
attorney — was given to him as a mere formality. He had 

114 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

served so well in a small way as a party speaker, that he was 
made the candidate because election was considered hopeless. 
Yet he was elected, and this might be said to be the first demon- 
stration of his hold on the people. The surprise was universal; 
possibly he himself shared in it. Thence onward he labored in- 
cessantly as a lawyer and as a political speaker, and thence on- 
ward his life is impressive, from the vast amount of its work 
and his constant readiness for it. 

From first to last there runs through his life and career 
one unbroken quality — poise. When he got to Congress his life 
gave no evidence of ability to attract attention or to attain an 
unusual position. He simply plodded on, doing his duty dili- 
gently and meeting the ever-growing request for his presence as 
a public speaker with addresses on various occasions. It was 
the old colonel who had watched over him as a boy, who had 
guided and cared for him in the army, who was then President, 
Rutherford B. Hayes, that pointed out to him his hope for some- 
thing more than commonplace service. In the intimacy of their 
life, one day at the White House President Hayes said to him: 
" To achieve success and fame you must pursue a special line," 
and advised him to devote himself to the tariff, as a subject that 
would not be settled for years. Rutherford B. Hayes made 
McKinley as clearly as one man ever makes another. Who shall 
say that but for President Hayes's advice this opportunity might 
have come and passed, as it came and passed to others? But 
McKinley was, of all men, one to profit most highly by such ad- 
vice, for he had supremely the quality of devotion and serious- 
ness of purpose. He soon became known in Congress as an au- 
thority on the tariff. 

Like all men devoted to one idea, he became a doctrinaire, 
and to some degree a fanatic. And it was well for him so; 
for with the triumph of the policy for which he stood, and with 
which, happily for him, he became identified by name, in the 
McKinley bill, there came a reaction; but not for him. When 

US 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

party defeat seemed to indicate that the principle of protection 
had been in part at least repudiated by the people, he was con- 
spicuously steadfast. The national defeat he declared " had not 
made Republican principles less true, nor our faith in their ulti- 
mate triumph less firm." And so, if he was a fanatic at this 
period of his life, it was well for him and for his party that 
he was so. 

But he was not a true fanatic. His last public utterance, 
a few hours' before he was shot, showed true statesmanship in 
manifesting the understanding that this great principle for 
which he had stood and with which his public life was identified, 
could be modified for him by circumstances, and that the time 
had come to modify it. " The period of exclusiveness is past ; 
reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the times; 
if perchance some of our tariffs are no longer needed for revenue, 
or to encourage and protect our industries at home, why should 
they not be employed to extend and promote our markets 
abroad?" Here the poise of this admirable nature manifested 
itself supremely. How much it promised of wise guidance for 
our future! 

His Presidential administration partook of the qualities of 
the man with one exception. In his deference to the politicians 
he showed a weakness new and unsuspected, by contradicting 
himself and to an extent reversing his attitude toward the spoils 
system. He did not make a complete surrender, but he wavered. 
He wavered, too, in his views on the all-important subject of the 
new relations of our dependencies. It can fairly be said for him 
in this, however, that the situation was new, and that his ex- 
pressed conviction as to our policy may have been formed on 
inadequate consideration, and that he was brave enough to con- 
tradict himself when further experience pointed to what he 
believed to be higher wisdom. In other attributes his adminis- 
tration was one of the best that the country has ever had, and 

116 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 



was conspicuously able in more than one crisis created by cir- 
cumstances new and almost without precedent. He threw the 
whole weight of his character and office on the side of peace 
when war seemed inevitable; but history will probably say that, 
as the result of war, he caught the spirit of conquest. He in- 
dubitably favored a retention of the dependencies and a political 
expansion of the country. In his tour previous to his decision 
on this question he interrogated the people, and in defence of 
his after course declared that the people had so instructed him. 
But he interrogated the people like a skilful advocate. 

Brief as the time has been since then, we have become accus- 
tomed to the situation. But, let us remember, that at that time 
we were at the parting of the ways. The cherished beliefs of 
this country had been that this continent was all of the coun- 
try; that with the Eastern world we had nothing to do; of the 1 
Western world we were the guardian — sitting here in the se- 
curity of the seas. The expansion that we had constantly illus- 
trated in our growth, and had always believed in, contemplated 
inevitably the introduction of our institutions and the admission 
of the new lands to full statehood in due constitutional progres- 
sion. History, Ave believe, wdll say that President McKinley 
threw the weight of his great personality and of his tremendous 
prestige, acquired by the successful conduct of the war, on the 
side of taking the new step that has opened to us the possibility of 
possessions in every part of the world with all of the responsibili- 
ties of empire. 

It is this that will make the McKinley administration espe- 
cially marked in our history. The foreign press, notably the 
English, which understands us sometimes better than we under- 
stand ourselves (as we may recall in its predictions about us 
previously to the Spanish War), notes clearly this significance of 
McKinley's administration. " He was the first to recognize 
clearly," says one, " the necessity for the expansion of the United 
States. His period of office will always be famous as the epoch 

117 






RBOBOvran 
JUN A 1908 





WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

in which the foundation of the American empire began." An- 
other notes that " his last speech sounded the note of a com- 
mercial empire, with which his name will be associated. He 
was the first President to expound the imperial idea." This 
contemporaneous verdict is undeniably true. If he was not the 
first to recognize clearly the necessity of political expansion, he 
was the great factor in making it. Commercial expansion was a 
necessity, felt before political expansion was dreamed of. And 
it would come, and will come, because it is a fact of evolution. 
But President McKinley was great enough to recognize the su- 
premacy of the opportunity that was his, and in his last speech 
he practically stood forward as a leader, taking the first step 
in the direction that must be taken to realize commercial empire. 

In his other great administrative acts he showed wisdom, 
and, constantly, his quality of poise. He did well, perhaps, in 
the slowness with which he gave consistency to the movement 
for a sound currency. He did not go so fast as abler men than 
he desired, but looking back — as history will look back — it may, 
perhaps, be written of him, that he was the wiser; that he 
waited for the due time. 

His management of the world crisis in China would shed 
lustre on the proudest ministry of constitutional government 
anywhere. He had the wisdom to have by his side a far-seeing 
statesman, and to gather around him able men; but he will 
be accredited, and justly, with the approval that gave a wonder- 
ful victory to our policy in China. Here was a situation that 
at any time had in it the possibilities of a world war. Through- 
out, he played our part so skilfully, so wisely, so firmly, that his- 
tory will be likely to say that he not only won renown for his 
country, but that he really guided the "West as against the East, 
and brought the older powers of Europe to his way. No pages 
in the annals of our history will shine brighter than those which 
record the achievements of the McKinley administration in the 
Spanish and in the Chinese "War; and no pages will be more 

118 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

momentous than those which record the acts of that administra- 
tion in founding the American empire. 

His individuality counted for more in this new epoch than 
that of any other of our Presidents, except Washington in the 
foundation period, and Lincoln in the great change that carried 
the country from slavery to freedom. More than any other man, 
he has launched the Republic on its new way. How wise the 
work was, contemporaneous inquiry may ask in vain; the future 
alone can answer. It may be that he has interpreted the will 
of the people, as Lincoln did. Whatever be the wisdom of the 
doctrine of the " saving remnant," our institutions are imbedded 
in the belief that all of the people are wiser than any of the 
people. William McKinley came from the people, and was of 
the people; he was bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. 
He was part of their public life and affairs during forty years. 
Like Lincoln in the great crisis of the Civil War, he may have 
translated the real will of the people into action. History may 
show that, like Lincoln, he rode the ground swell in the face 
of surface waves. The people certainly believed in him, he had 
their confidence, and his life passed in their service. He had 
shown that quality which they always have chosen in their Presi- 
dents — poise. For this they have passed by brilliant men, from 
Clay to Blaine. In the midst of his supreme work, the people 
had an opportunity to pass judgment on it again. They restated 
it with increased emphasis. 

History will surely trace the way of this people, through the 
momentous period, in which they have come to a consciousness 
of their power, and have asserted themselves in the world as an 
empire, like a strong onward march. They were not the sub- 
jects of cunningly contrived circumstances; they were neither 
coerced nor cajoled by an imperious personality, nor bewildered 
by the glamour of genius which a century ago led France into 
the wilderness. They had at this time a man of themselves; an 

119 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

exemplar of all of the virtues that they extol; sprung from the 
sturdiest stock that founded liberty in this land; nurtured in 
the traditions that have made the land what it is; born and 
brought up in a life whose even tenor made it a very type of 
American life; illustrating the beauty of a home life as this 
people conceive it; assimilating the religious life of the people 
as part of his own; untroubled by any unwholesome ambitions, 
aspiring never, waiting always, having learned not merely the 
lesson to labor, but to wait. This man was part of the people 
as no President has been since Lincoln. He will be identified as 
closely with their aspirations and achievements and will occupy 
a most exalted place in being the instrument that gave expres- 
sion to those aspirations and achievements. 



Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

McKIXLEY IX HISTORY. 

The President of the United States, William MeKinley, died 
this morning, from wounds inflicted by an assassin on the after- 
noon of September 6th, while the Chief Magistrate was the guest 
of thousands of citizens who were gathered to do to him honor. 

The experience is the third of the kind through which the 
American people have passed. The first two were accountable 
by the penultimate frenzies of expiring war, in the one instance, 
and by the shock of a factional feud on a canting and cross- 
cut mind, in the other instance. 

The third instance is chargeable to causes in which the whole 
world realizes a common peril, feels a common shock, and shares 
a common responsibility. The prevalence and tolerance of false 
teaching concerning liberty, property, and government is the 
cause, in this latest instance, of the deed at which all stand 
aghast. In each of the three cases a brain equally weak, equally 
wicked, and equally vain was the pervert-instrument of evil 
forces and of evil men who sought to turn those forces to the 

120 



TTILLIAM McKINLEY 

profit of their own hates or pockets. Sectional savagery culmi- 
nated and ended in Lincoln's murder. Factional fury culminated 
and was exhausted in Garfield's murder. The wickedness of 
stimulating class hatreds, to win unfit votes for unfit men and to 
sell unfit papers in largest possible numbers, comes to its ulti- 
mate, let us hope, in McKinley's murder. There may be other 
political assassinations in America, but sectionalism, party ran- 
cor, and anarchy would be able to score no more to their credit. 
Kecoil from the effect should carry in it cure of the cause. 

There never was a gentler or finer man than the illustrious 
victim of influences that should henceforth be as forbidden as 
abhorrent here. Mr. McKinley was almost unique in his prep- 
aration for the Presidency. He rose from minor political ser- 
vice in his country to a membership of Congress for fourteen 
years, and to a governorship of his State for four years. He 
was the leader of the House when he ceased from Congress. He 
was the exponent of protection when it seemed the issue. He 
was named by his party for President, as its free choice, after 
he had twice refused to be its candidate, when the satisfaction 
of his ambition would have involved the suspicion of perfidy to 
pledges to other men. Service in the Congressional opposition 
and service with the Congressional majority fell to him for 
about an eq\ial number of years. His service in the governor- 
ship coincided with the growth in national politics of the prin- 
ciple which he especially impersonated. The principle was pro- 
tection — an emergent, temporary, exigent, incidental matter, 
meant alike wisely to slow yet surely eventually to accomplish 
the movement of the world toward freedom of trade. 

The last public words of his were those in which he spoke 
of the loosening of tariffs and of far freer trade through reciproc- 
ity. His campaigns threw on him and on his party issues not 
made in the purposes or platforms which politicians foresaw or 
preferred. He owed his election, the first time, to a wholly dif- 
ferent question from the one to which he owed his nomination 

121 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

then. He owed his election, the second time, to causes which his 
first administration was never expected or created to shape or 
make or denote. 

The good genius of America was only carrying on the pro- 
gressive mission of America, with a new, a needed and an admir- 
able agent. The party rancor which the personality of Wash- 
ington stilled, and the elements of which he fused into unity 
for the solidarity and permanence of the infant Republic, fell 
to the lowest temperature of passion and rose to the highest 
expression of a common patriotism under William McKinley, 
attained by it in modern times. The issueless and stupid " era 
of good feeling " under Monroe is no more to be compared with 
the contemporary patriotism of peace than is sleep to be com- 
pared with life. The desire of Lincoln for a union of hearts and 
of hands, among brothers whom Civil War had set in conflict, 
was accomplished by William McKinley in his masterly man- 
agement of the war to make the bounds of freedom larger yet 
than Lincoln foresaw or dreamed. The North and the South 
in Cuba and in Porto Rico, at Santiago and in the Philippines 
united under a single flag, in the making of a better America, 
the valor and genius they had shown against one another on 
fields of fratricide. 

How greatly his nature as well as his experience assisted him 
all can see in the retrospect of his life. He had strong passions. 
He learned to master them. The ability was acquired in the 
school of sorrow and in service of love rendered to suffering. 
He was so devoted to his wife that her constant invalidism bred 
in him a self-control that nothing in politics or government could 
disestablish. In the sick room were learned and strengthened 
the self-poise, the patience, the silence, the fortitude, the seren- 
ity, and the spiritual refinement that made him, as Mr. Hoar 
said, the best-beloved of our Presidents. 

He was not the most original or aggressive, but he was the 
most effective of Republican Presidents, since Lincoln. He did 

122 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

things and lie secured the doing of things. His reasons were 
outwrought into results. The chieftains of his party grounded 
their arms at his feet in life as sincerely and wholeheartedly 
as they mingled their tears round those feet in his death. But 
his singular success in influencing legislation, in guiding admin- 
istration, and in persuading the people bred in him neither vanity 
nor self-confidence nor arrogance. He was modest, grateful, 
self-effacing, and almost diffident in his bearing. He rejoiced 
in truthful estimate of his motive. He disrelished fulsome trib- 
utes to his talents or skill. He loved the simplicities and the 
realities, home, music, song, friendship, fresh air, flowers, the 
sunlight, trees, sky, birds, and little children. 

There must be no weakness in the recall of his virtues and 
of his deeds. As he drew from duty, country and opportunity, 
inspiration and capacity, so must America draw capacity and 
inspiration from his career. The word of God to the sons of 
men is Forward! The man who succeeds him in law and by 
the ordination of suffrage is, like McKinley, a soldier, a states- 
man, a patriot, an exemplar of religion, and a gentleman, experi- 
enced in varied fields of affairs. The record and the benedic- 
tion of the man gone will abide with and influence the man who 
takes up his work. He is entitled to the confidence and co-opera- 
tion of his countrymen. The hooded Providence which has ever 
protected and guided our people and which has never failed in 
its requisition of men for emergencies or of fit forces for fit func- 
tions has the nation in charge still. Theodore Koosevelt will be 
as obedient unto the heavenly vision of duty as William McKin- 
ley was, for each was born and each by events was made Ameri- 
can to the core, and the American people not only carry in them- 
selves the power to do the things the world needs to have done, 
but they also carry in them the power to make their Presidents 
equal to the doing of those things, in their name, as they are 
presented for estimate and for action in the ordinary or in the 
extraordinary occasions of our national life. 

i 2 3 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Ohio State Journal, Columbus, O. 

THE PRESIDENT IS DEAD. 

A great calamity has befallen the American people. The 
black pall of a great sorrow covers the land. President McKin- 
ley is dead. 

The courteous and beloved leader; the gentle and devoted 
husband; the great-souled, manly man, and the broad-minded 
and far-sighted statesman has succumbed to the assassin's foul 
attack and is no more. 

In the presence of such a sorrow words fail and silent tears 
bespeak a loss too deep for words. It is inexpressibly sad. Here 
in his native State, whose honor has been spotless in his keeping 
and whose people have rejoiced in his greatness because they 
loved his strong and beautiful character, the blow falls with all 
the poignancy of personal bereavement. 

The great loss is all the more terrible because it has brought 
an unspeakable disgrace upon the American people. Three 
times within a generation the noblest and the best of American 
Presidents have fallen by the hand of an assassin. 

No other country in the world has such a black blot upon 
it in this respect as free America. Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley 
— three martyrs to liberty and nationality in less than forty 
years. Not even despotic, absolute Russia can show such a rec- 
ord. There is crushing humiliation in the fact. 

Has it come that liberty cannot exist without license run- 
ning riot? Must order-loving America, with all its freedom, its 
intelligence, and its abounding prosperity, admit reluctantly that 
its measure of liberty, in speech and press, has been too great ? 

Certainly the time has come when anarchy must be stamped 
out in America and immigration must be restricted more sharply. 
We have been too careless of the wild-eyed agitator spouting on 
the street corner; too tolerant also of the demagogue inciting 

124 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

class against class for party and personal advantage. Serene 
in our confidence in American self-control, the mad rantings of 
anarchy and demagogy have been passed by as harmless vapor- 
ings. 

This has been a mistake. "We must realize that American 
cities have become cosmopolitan. In their congested centres 
are thousands who have no true appreciation of the meaning of 
liberty. Greater efforts at enlightenment in these districts must 
be made, and with them must be enforced a greater respect for 
law and higher regard for public office as it typifies the whole 
people. 

Some means must be found also for the regulation of the in- 
cendiary yellow newspaper. Indirectly the vicious and senseless 
abuse of the President by rabid partisan sheets has been respon- 
sible for Czolgosz's awful crime. But of this more will be said 
later. 

The martyred President will go down in history as one of 
the greatest and noblest men who has ever been honored by the 
American people with the highest office in their gift. His devo- 
tion to the people has never been surpassed. No other Presi- 
dent ever sought more earnestly to learn true public sentiment 
than William McKinley, and none was ever guided more im- 
plicitly by it. 

He believed in the people and they had faith in him. He 
regarded himself in the highest and best sense as their represen- 
tative. History will place William McKinley beside Lincoln 
and Washington in high ability, in lofty character, and in far- 
sighted statesmanship. 

His five years as President have marked a great epoch in 
American history. Whatever may befall, the nation will go 
forward to the fulfilment of the policies which were formulated 
and successfully inaugurated by him. 

The pity of it is that one so admirably fitted by all the graces 
of mind and person for the vast responsibility of the present 

125 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

should not Lave been permitted to carry to its conclusion the 
great work he had begun. 

The nation is fortunate, however, in having a man of the 
lofty type of Theodore Koosevelt to succeed William Mclvinley. 
He has come into the chief magistracy in a time of peace and 
prosperity, but with a great work and vast responsibility before 
him. He brings to it stalwart Americanism, thorough honesty 
of purpose, great ability, and a splendid record of strict fidelity 
to duty and the earnest fulfilment of every trust that the peo- 
ple have given him. 

The honor, the prosperity, and the beloved institutions of the 
country are safe in his hands. 



126 



Tributes from Governors of States 



State of Khode Island, Etc., Executive Department, 
Providence, September 28, 1901. 
Like that of most of our greater Americans, the career of 
William McKinley was of the kind that it is popular to define 
as " typically American." Born in humble circumstances and 
even in his chosen path meeting with obstacles and discourage- 
ments, he rose to achieve the highest honor in the gift of the 
American people, an honor which we all feel is greater than any 
other nation can offer its citizens. The McKinley period is 
marked for history as an epoch in the progress of the American 
nation. Under the President's leadership, the United States 
assumed their rightful position as a world power, a position for 
which there had been uninterrupted preparation since the dawn 
of Independence. And it is an extraordinary tribute to our late 
President that none of the great strides that the nation has 
made from time to time was ever before taken with equal una- 
nimity on the part of Congress and people. In a word, no Presi- 
dent has ever expressed so closely in his important official acts the 
contemporary sentiment of his fellow-countrymen. In the of- 
fice of President, McKinley was the personification of representa- 
tive government, so intimately did he understand and so suc- 
cessfully did he execute the people's will. Of his personal char- 
acter and private life no praise can speak too highly. Of his 
martyrdom, we may only echo his own dying words — " It is 

God's way." 

William Gregory, 

Governor Staff of Rhode Island. 

127 



WILLIAM McKIlS T LEY 

Executive Office, Des Moines, Iowa, 
September 26, 1901. 
I think it is not extravagant to say that "William McBnley 
passed from earth the personal friend of more people, and more 
generally beloved by those who knew him than any other person 
whose dwelling has been among men. Not alone throughout the 
length and breadth of the United States were business houses 
closed, office doors locked, street-cars and continental trains 
stopped at the solemn hours of his obsequies, but all Christen- 
dom seemed to tarry at his bier. The position which the hon- 
ored dead held in the estimation of his countrymen and the 
world was not accidental. It was well earned by faithful ser- 
vice performed in many relations, and rendered under many and 
divergent conditions. As a citizen he was exemplary; as a sol- 
dier he was valiant; as a statesman the peer of the greatest; 
as a public servant, faithful; as a husband, ideal; as a Chris- 
tian, commendable; and at all times and under all circumstances 
he was a gentleman. Wherever Christian civilization exists or 
shall be hereafter established, now and to all time, wives will 
recount his devotion as a husband, and parents tell the story of 
his life. Leslie M. Shaw, 

Governor of Iowa. 



State of Delaware, Executive Department, 
Dover, Del., September 26, 1901. 
The earthly career of William McKinley is closed, but in 
the loving memory of his country it has just begun. He needs 
no special eulogy, his life as a soldier, statesman, and husband 
was conspicuous for bravery, high ability, and loving devotion 
— a nobleman by nature, by nature richly endowed. He was al- 
ways great enough to do the right because he believed it was 

128 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

right. Our gTeat nation has never been blessed with a better 
administration than that of our lamented and martyred Presi- 
dent. 

John Hume, 
Governor of Delaware. 



Territory of New Mexico, Office of the Executive, 
Santa Fe, September 30, 1901. 
The death of President McKinley is too recent and too shock- 
ing for anyone who has the ability and feeling to properly eulo- 
gize him in whom — 

" Unbounded courage and compassion joined, 
Tempering each other in the victor's mind, 
Alternately proclaim him good and great, 
And make the hero and the man complete." 

For nearly forty years he has lived and moved in the fierce 
light that beats upon our public men and reveals the slightest 
flaw in motive or in character, and like the perfect gem this light 
brought out in him the latent beauties of his nature, which were 
his chiefest hold upon the people whom he knew and loved 
so well. 

It was not his mastery of political science, his statecraft, 
or his wisdom that brought him closer to the people than any- 
one before him and made his untimely death felt as a personal 
grief to every home in our country; which stayed the wheels 
of commerce between the Atlantic and Pacific, and caused the 
telegraph to pause and the heart of this great nation to stand 
still for five solemn moments, while his sacred remains were sor- 
rowfully entombed by loving hands on the green hillside near 
the little city which was his home. 

It was the clear, honest, kindly Christian character of the 
man which the nation mourned, and it is this which will place 

129 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

the name of William MeKinley highest among those great of 
whom it can be said: " He loved his fellow-men." 

He has passed from us in the prime and pride of life, just 
after he had uttered words of peace and good-will to all the 
world, at a festival in honor of the brotherhood of men and to 
exemplify the peaceful arts which have made the Americas 
great and one in purpose. 

To us who mourn, it seems that his life work was scarce 
begun, there is so much to do, and he who is gone appeared 
to us the best equipped for its doing. But to Him who doeth 
all things well, it was otherwise. His time had come and found 
him fully ready. His first thought was for that loved wife 
whom he had shielded and protected so long, his next was for- 
giveness to the unhappy man who had slain him, and his last, 
complete resignation to the will of God. His, a model life, a 
Christian death. The whole world mourns. 

" He was a man, take him for all in all," 
We " shall not look upon his like again." 

Miguel A. Otero, 

Governor. 



State of Oregon, Executive Department, 
Salem, September 30, 1901. 
For nearly twenty years the name of William MeKinley 
had been a familiar one to the reading public of the United 
States. The degree of industry and ability it requires to be- 
come prominent in the national House of Representatives may 
be understood when it is remembered that of the three hundred 
and fifty members of that body, not more than fifty, perhaps, 
in any one house succeed in making a reputation reaching be- 
yond their immediate districts or States, but so pronounced were 
McKinley's acquirements that before he had finished his second 
term he had attracted national attention. He soon became one 

'3o 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

of the recognized leaders of his party, and, therefore, a man to 
be watched by his political opponents. By untiring industry 
and close application he became, in 1S89, a candidate for speaker 
against Honorable Thomas B. Reed, the defeat for which posi- 
tion made him, eventually, President of the United States. He 
told the writer of these lines, in October, 1899, that he had 
never, before or since, been so anxious for success as during that 
campaign for the speakership, but added that if he had been 
elected " I should to-day probably be a member of Congress 
from Ohio." 

The exceeding popularity which clusters around his name 
to-day has naught to do with the fact that he has been num- 
bered with our martyred Presidents. At no time in his pub- 
lic career had he occupied so warm a spot in the hearts of all 
classes of his countrymen as during the past year. He had 
been tried in the exacting experiences of the public service and 
had not been found wanting. Coming to the Presidency at 
a time of profound peace, without a cloud to mar the political 
horizon in any quarter, within less than one year complications 
arose which led to a war with a foreign government, and which 
not only changed the policies and geography of the world, but 
left a train of international questions of varied and complex 
character. To the settlement of these, in a satisfactory man- 
ner, President McKinley addressed himself, with that determi- 
nation which was always characteristic of him, and the day of 
his death found us at perfect peace with every nation on earth, 
the greatest power in the world, and prosperous beyond any 
former period in our history. 

Xo one of our Presidents has been subjected to so great a 
test of statesmanship, save Lincoln, as that which confronted 
McKinley at the beginning of the Spanish War. The destruc- 
tion of the battleship Maine burst upon the country like a thun- 
derbolt from a clear sky, and, considering it as an act of Span- 
ish treachery, the American people unanimously demanded the 

131 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

immediate declaration of war, and while the President knew that 
we had neither ships, ammunition, nor guns, and that a declara- 
tion of war before we were able to support it by force would be 
suicidal, he was compelled to endure the impatience and com- 
plaints of the people without fully explaining to them the actual 
reason for the delay. Few Presidents have ever gone through 
the trying ordeal that was William McKinley's during the time 
intervening between the destruction of the Maine and the 
declaration of war against Spain, in his effort to stay the hand 
of Congress until preparation was made to insure that magnifi- 
cent victory which was afterward ours, and no greater tribute 
was ever paid to any President than when Congress, by the 
unanimous vote of both Houses, voted the sum of $50,000,000 
for the prosecution of the war, to be expended by him wholly at 
his discretion. 

Xo man could have been taken from public life at this 
time who would be so greatly missed as he. We shall see him 
no more, nor hear his kindly voice exhorting the people to still 
loftier heights of morality and patriotism. His life may be 
said to have been a consecrated devotion to the care of his 
afflicted wife and to what he thought were the best interests of 
the country he loved so well. He will always stand in history, 
as he does to-day in the hearts of his countrymen, as a model 
product of American manhood, and to whose example any 
mother in the land can point her son and advise him to follow 
after. More than this cannot be said of any man. His con- 
tinually growing popularity only reached its summit on the day 
of his death. The common people of the country have lost an 
untiring friend, and the spirit of good government an able ad- 
vocate and unfaltering devotee. 

Xo greater eulogy has been uttered anywhere in this broad 
land than when one of our own writers said, " Xo act of Will- 
iam McKinley has ever •dishonored those little graves in the 
Canton cemetery, or cast a shadow across the life now so strangely 

»32 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

called to survive him," and, although his mortal remains are 
resting beneath the sod of the beautiful eminence overlooking 
his beloved Ohio home, by the side of his little children whose 
departure to the unseen world so many years ago has no doubt 
been a continually contributing factor in the construction of 
his most admirable character, he has left an impress for good 
upon his country's history that is not surpassed by any of his 
illustrious predecessors. J. J. Geer, 

Governor of the State of Oregon. 



Executive Department, 
Charleston, W. Va., September 30, 1901. 

The awful crime of Friday, September 6th, which cul- 
minated in the death of our beloved President, produced in no 
State or section of our country more profound and universal 
sorrow and grief than among the citizens of West Virginia. Our 
people knew McKinley as neighbor, friend, and comrade; his 
face and voice were familiar to many thousands of our residents; 
he was universally loved as a man and trusted and respected 
as our Chief Executive. Xowhere were the tributes of sorrow 
and respect more general and sincere, and on the day of the 
funeral memorial services were held in every city, town, and vil- 
lage of our Commonwealth. 

A grand, good, pure, able, and safe leader of the people 
has fallen by a dastard's deed; struck down in the zenith of his 
career, when his successful leadership had placed our country 
at the head of the nations of the world; when peace and pros- 
perity had poured their blessings in unexampled degree upon 
onr land, and when our future as a people w T as the brightest. 
Truly, God moves in a mysterious way. Lincoln, Garfield, 
McKinley — martyrs to their country — a noble triumvirate. But 
O ! the pity of their killing and the deep humiliation and sense 

133 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

of shame which tinge our sorrow. It may truly be said that, 
while Lincoln saved the Union, McKinley united it. 

McKinley's life was one of earnest endeavor. His public 
record is a glorious one of high resolve and noble achievement. 
His life is an inspiration to the youth of our land in its example 
of hard work, conscientiously and courageously done. He won 
every step of his advancement on his merits. His fame as a 
patriot, statesman, and great leader is secure for all time. 

He lived a noble life and died a Christian. In nothing was 
he greater than at the time he was shot and in his last conscious 
hours. His life as a consistent, loving, Christian man, and his 
beautiful and trusting faith, as his feet entered in the valley 
of the shadow of death, are a benediction to the nation as well 
as an inspiration to millions of his fellow-men to higher and bet- 
ter living. 

Let me close this imperfect and brief tribute to one whom 
I knew and loved as a personal friend, whose devoted follower 
I was for many years, with the tender, eloquent, and gracious 
words which the editor of the Nashville American used in com- 
menting to his readers on the death of our most universally be- 
loved and martyred President: 

" Gracious and gentle and charitable was William McKin- 
ley. There was never in public life a cleaner, more moral, up- 
right personal character. A patriot who had in peace and in 
war served his country with the best of his ability, which grew 
greater with years; having sincere love for it and faith and 
confidence in its institutions, its integrity and stability and its 
future, as he had love for its past; a Christian, modest, devout, 
and courageous; a husband whose abiding love and tender de- 
votion have made him one of the sublimest lovers in history, 
and won for him the admiration of all who love a lover; a friend 
whose warm and generous friendship drew men to him in lov- 
ing loyalty; a man whose genial nature and disposition, gra- 
cious manner, gentle courtesy, and unfailing kindness won the 

134 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

respect and esteem and personal friendship of all who came in 
contact with him — such was President McKinley whose gentle 
soul has taken flight to the great hereafter." 

A. B. White, 

Governor. 



State of Maixe, Executive Departmext, 
Augusta, September 27, 1901. 

In the death of McKinley the nation meets a loss which no 
man can measure in this first hour of grief. Coming as it does 
in the wake of assuring news presaging the executive's recovery, 
the blow is the harder to bear. The time is not yet ripe to 
accord President McKinley his final place in the world's Hall 
of Fame. Years must pass before historians settle those mat- 
ters, but a world that has watched the great leader as he has 
worked at the multitudinous problems of an eventful adminis- 
tration wdll accord him a place among the highest. 

As a President he will be classed with Washington and Lin- 
coln — wise, watchful, and ever kindly, standing for that which 
was broadest and highest in the onward and upward growth 
of the world. To the field of international affairs he lent him- 
self with wonderful aptitude, and into diplomacy he infused 
a new force and placed the United States of America on equal 
terms with the other nations of the earth. The diplomatic policy 
of McKinley was always for the right, regardless of national 
self-advancement, forgetting never the rights of the unfortunate, 
and maintaining ever the triumph of right over might. 

His administration has been typical of the spirit of protec- 
tion, and under his guiding mind and hand the nation has en- 
joyed the greatest period of prosperity ever known. But his 
death will not change this in the slightest degree, for the coun- 
try will move on in the ways of prosperity, and there will be 
no overturn in the business world. But it is sad, indeed, that 

i3S 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

this life should be taken just on the eve of the nation's greatest 
development. It does not seem right that he should be denied 
the pleasure and the well-earned satisfaction of seeing his plans 
brought to fruition. 

In President Roosevelt I have every confidence — in his in- 
tegrity, his patriotism, and his ability. He will take up the 
work so felicitously begun by McKinley, and with sure hand and 
keen grasp of affairs will see that the nation takes no backward 
step in the march of progress. 

But in my grief and sorrow there is a touch of shame that 
such a thing could happen in this great free country of ours — 
in a time of peace when people were met together for good-will 
and harmony. I hate to think that there are men so perverted 
and lost to all good impulses that within a generation three Presi- 
dents of this Republic fall before the hand of the assassin. 

John Fremont Hill, 

Governor. 



Territory of Oklahoma, Executive Department, 
Guthrie, September 28, 1901. 

I first, knew President McKinley when he made his first race 
for Congress. My home was at Alliance, and I cast my first bal- 
lot for Congressman for him that year, and at the election of 
1878 and also of 1880 it was my privilege to vote for McKinley 
for Congress. I was attracted by his high and lofty spirit, clean 
character, and genial manner, and formed the impression then 
that he possessed exceptional qualities that would in time place 
him in the highest place in the gift of the American people. 

After removing to the West I watched his career with keen- 
est interest, and was never disappointed in what I expected liim 
to do. His devotion to the interest of American labor stands 
out as a characteristic of hi< life-work, and his methods of deal- 

136 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

ing with his fellow-men were so graceful that they misled some 
but captivated all. 

As we saw him in life from day to day, associated with other 
men, we admired his great qualities and marked his successes. 
He passed before us as a sort of moving picture, his different 
acts appearing before us at different times, and we did not realize 
until now, when his life-work is completed and we view his char- 
acter and his great qualities as a whole, what manner of man 
he was. While he lived we could not make comparisons with 
the great men who have preceded him. "We now have the right, 
and it becomes our duty to compare him with the others who 
have attracted our love and admiration on account of their great 
qualities and great work for their fellow-men and for their coun- 
try, and when we review anew the lives of the great Americans 
who stand out in our history as the greatest with a view of 
making an estimate of McKinley, I am forced to conclude that 
none were greater than he, and I believe that when the Ameri- 
can people fully understand themselves they will find that 
McKinley comes nearer up to the standard of an ideal Ameri- 
can citizen than any of his predecessors. 

William M. Jenkins, 

Governor. 



The Governor's Office, State House, 

Columbus, O. 
To the People of Ohio: 

With great sorrow I announce to you that William McKin- 
ley, President of the United States, is dead. 

His whole life was dedicated to patriotic public service. As 
a boy he was a brave and loyal soldier of the Union. Fourteen 
years in the Congress of the L'nited States were marked in the 
framing and advocacy by him of laws most wise and beneficial 
to the country. During four years as Governor of Ohio he 

!37 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

earned and received our love and affection. It was, however, 
as President of the United States that his devotion to his coun- 
try showed in its greatest brilliancy and his very eminent ability 
became most marked. His work as the nation's Chief Executive 
was of such a character that it will live and bless the Republic 
for all time, and will be his most enduring monument. His 
never-ceasing kindness and affection to an invalid wife have en- 
deared him to every man, woman, and child in our land. 

Your hearts are filled with intense grief. I ask you to mani- 
fest this by displaying upon your homes and places of business 
the usual evidences of mourning, and upon the day of his funeral 
by honoring his memory in every possible appropriate manner. 
Pray also that God may shield our beloved and stricken country 
from harm on account of this great affliction and ever keep us 
in His gracious care. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto 
affixed my name and the great seal of the State of Ohio, this 
14th day of September, a.d. 1901. 

(Signed) . George K. Nash. 

By the Governor: 

Lewis C. Laylix, 

Secretary of State. 



State of Mixnesota, Executive Departmext, 
St. Paul, September 30, 1901. 
Never before in all human history has the death of a man 
been so deeply and universally mourned as that of "William 
McKinley. Why was it? Not only because he was great, but 
because he was good. He loved the plain people, and everyone 
of them felt that he had lost a dear friend. It is difficult to 
state what most endeared him to the people. Whether the lead- 
ing of the nation from the deepest gloom to the greatest pros- 
perity; or, the successful prosecution of the Spanish- American 

138 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

War that freed Cuba, made us a world power, and added much 
territory aud millions of people to our domains; or the uniting 
of the North and the South, not in name only, but in fact. His 
untimely death was nowhere more sincerely regretted than in 
the Southland. Perhaps, after all, he was loved as much for 
his tender devotion to his sick wife. No armored knight of olden 
times was more gallant to his lady-love than he to the mistress 
of his heart. The beautiful picture of this man in San Francisco 
beside the idol of his home when the populace was demanding 
his attention can never be forgotten. Unconsciously, perhaps, 
yet I believe on account of this illustrious example, all men are 
more tender of the dear ones at home. 

McKinley's life typifies in a pre-eminent degree the possi- 
bilities of the American youth. From private soldier to Presi- 
dent — aud such a President! He was a soldier with an un- 
tarnished record, a citizen without reproach, and one of Amer- 
ica's greatest statesmen. S. R. Van Sant, 

Governor State of Minnesota. 



State of Michigan, Executive Department, 
Lansing, Mich. 
A PROCLAMATION. 

To the People of the State of Midi igan : 

William McKinley, the twenty-fifth President of the United 
States, lies dead at Buffalo, the third Chief Executive of the 
Union to be stricken by the bloody hands of assassination. The 
nation bows in agonized grief at the side of his bier, where the 
world is sending tributes of praise for the manly man, the far- 
sighted statesman, the devoted patriot, the gallant soldier, the 
model husband, and tender father. His life was the exemplifica- 
tion of the cardinal virtues of Christian integrity, nobility of 
character, and devotion to duty, and was an inspiration to all 

i39 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

true Americans. History will write for him one of her bright- 
est and most glorious pages. As he was beloved, so will his 
death be deplored. In the light of his martyrdom vanishes all 
striving. Death has silenced the mighty brain and stilled the 
warm heart in the very hour when the nation's needs are great- 
est. He had piloted the country through perils the darkest 
since the days of Civil "War, to the time of outlining the wise 
policies which the nation must pursue in its career as a world- 
wide power. Even as he was called to death, the people were 
yet drinking in eagerly the words of his last public address 
wherein he pointed out with prophetic vision the path his coun- 
try must tread, the path of duty and stern responsibility. God 
will pardon the people if they cannot see clearly and accept only 
blindly the President's dying words, "It is God's way. His 
will be done." The years he has been at the head of the nation 
have been years great with momentous events; a war in the 
cause of humanity has healed the wounds of civil strife, and 
planted the stars and stripes on the mountain tops where all 
the world may see. The people are to be congratulated that the 
law of succession places the Presidency in the hands of a man 
who has been tested in the furnace-heat of national require- 
ments and not a flaw detected. May God's richest blessings rest 
upon Theodore Roosevelt in the great office to which he has 
been called. 

In testimony of the grief of the people of the State of Michi- 
gan it is directed that the Capitol be draped in mourning, and 
that the flags upon all State buildings be displayed at half-mast 
until after the interment; that on the day of the funeral all 
departments of the State Government be closed and all business 
as far as practicable be suspended. Let there be special ser- 
vices in the schools and all places of worship on that day, and 
the day, a day of supplication to Almighty God that He may 
in the future as in the past guide His people, protecting and 
prospering them. It is recommended that to-morrow every pul- 

140 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

pit call upon the Divine Father that He comfort the widow of 
the President and the people who mourn. Let the flag of the 
nation everywhere within the commonwealth be at half-mast, 
for the nation's chief is dead. 

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand aud 
caused the Great Seal of the State to be affixed, at Lansing, 
this fourteenth day of September, a.d. 1901, and of the Inde- 
pendence of the United States the One Hundred Twenty-sixth. 
(Signed) A. T. Bliss, 

Governor. 
By the Governor: 
Fred M. Warner, 

Secretary of State. 



State of North Carolina, Executive Department, 
Raleigh, October 4, 1901. 
The death of President McKinley, particularly in the form 
in which it occurred, was a great shock to the entire country. 
He was a good and great man. He earnestly strove to be a 
President of the entire country, and it was his good fortune to 
be President at a time when a foreign war enabled him to show 
to the people of the South that the bitterness of the " War Be- 
tween the States " had passed away. He was a just and gen- 
erous man, and the people of the South without exception will 
always do honor to his memory. If to have been an instrument 
in bringing the people of the entire country into perfect accord 
brings happiness, then surely President McKinley was happy both 
in his life and in his death. He enjoyed the confidence of the 
American people as few men have ever done, and he died with 
the affection of them all surrounding him. To live in the es- 
teem of the American people, to die with their love come to 
few men. Let us hope that the inspiration of his life and his 

141 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

patient fortitude in death and his firm reliance upon God may 
forever be to the people of this country sacred things inspiring 
them to better living and higher purposes. 
Very truly yours, 

Charles B. Aycock, 
Governor of North Carolina. 



Executive Chamber, 
Lincoln, Neb., September 27, 1901. 

William McKinley represented the purest and noblest type 
of American manhood. Rarely, if ever, has nature combined 
so many noble traits in one individual with every part perfect. 
He was a dutiful son, a devoted husband, a patriotic citizen, a 
brave soldier, and a master of statesmanship. From his boy- 
hood to the close of his life, his days were distinguished for 
purity, love, and patriotism. Though occupying a conspicuous 
position in public life, crowning his career with the most ex- 
alted testimonial of public esteem and confidence at the bestowal 
of the people of any nation, he was still the humble citizen, still 
solicitous of the welfare of all his fellow-men. Human history 
affords no other character-study like that embodied in the life 
of President McKinley. It is emblazoned and embellished with 
attributes representing the highest human ideals. No architect 
of character has yet furnished a model like it. The most care- 
ful scrutiny reveals no imperfection. 

His life is a study for the youth of the nation and for man- 
kind everywhere. It is an example whose emulation must neces- 
sarily ripen into higher and nobler citizenship. He lived a life 
of spotless honor, and, though a martyr, yielded sublimely, in 
prayerful obedience to the inevitable summons. 

America, though young in years, has furnished the world 
with many splendid types of manhood, but among the types of 

142 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

all the world, the one which rises highest and which has inade 
the greatest impression on human minds everywhere, is that of 
William McKinley. In point of practical statesmanship Presi- 
dent McKinley 's achievements stand without a parallel. The 
groundwork of the prevailing era of unprecedented prosperity 
was laid very early during his first term, and that, too, in face 
of the fact that at the time he assumed the reins of government 
the industrial and commercial interests of the nation were in the 
throes of a distressful panic. The statesmanship displayed in 
accomplishing the change from an era of industrial and com- 
mercial depression to one of boundless prosperity knows no equal 
in the history of human affairs. Looked at from every view- 
point, William McKinley must he regarded as nature's greatest 
human effort in the period of his years. 

Ezra P. Savage, 
Governor of Nebraska. 



The Governor's Office, 

Jeffersox City, Mo. 

At this time it is not practicable for me to give a just and 
comprehensive estimate of the character of President McKinley. 

My personal relations with him, for now nearly twenty 
years, have been so cordial that I feel his loss most keenly. I 
made his acquaintance at the Xational Capital in 1883, and the 
friendship established then has been strengthened with the 
passing years. Differing with him upon many public questions, 
I have never failed to recognize his honesty, sincerity, patriot- 
ism, and marked ability. 

The President always maintained his convictions with cour- 
tesy and courage unfailing. In Congress he was a ready de- 
bater and a resourceful legislator. It mattered not how sharp 
and keen the contest may have been along partisan Hues, he was 
always a courteous gentleman. 

143 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

His private life was pure and stainless. The devotion to his 
invalid wife was so constant and so gentle that it won the esteem 
of all who had knowledge of his domestic relations. This beauti- 
ful trait of his well-poised character was the occasion of much 
favorable comment at Washington long before his name was 
mentioned in connection with the Presidency. 

As President he has been broad-minded, patriotic, and con- 
siderate of the opinions of those who differed with him. 

It should be remembered that Mr. McKinley was the most 
potent personality in destroying the last lingering embers of 
sectional hatred. His conduct during the Spanish-American 
War disarmed opposition, and he won the affection of the South, 
when, out of a heart abundant in love, he declared that Southern 
cemeteries, where lie the ashes of the Confederate dead, should 
hereafter receive the same generous care from the National Gov- 
ernment as the cemeteries in which rest the sleeping dust of the 
Union dead. In my opinion President McKinley accomplished 
more to entomb sectionalism forever than any President who 
has been elected by the Republican Party since the days of 
Abraham Lincoln. 

It was a cruel, wanton shot which struck him down, but he 
passes to the other shore amid the sobs, the sighs, and the tears 
of the whole people, and in no part of the Republic is grief more 
sincere than among the people of the South. 

The President proved to be a great leader of his party. He 
was honest, able, resourceful, and exhibited consummate tact in 
harmonizing and unifying the powerful forces of that great 
organization. At this time, however, I do not care to think of 
him in connection with partisan questions. I prefer to remember 
him as I knew him in the quiet social circle — a charming per- 
sonality, a true friend, with a heart big enough to embrace every 
American, and a hand that was ever outstretched to help the 
friendless and the needy. A. M. Dookery, 

Governor State of Missouri. 
144 



WILLIAM McKIJSTLEY 

October 10, 1901. 
The earthly career of William McKinley is closed; in the 
loving memory of his country it has only begun. He needs no 
special eulogy, his life will be one of the brightest pages in our 
country's history. As a soldier, statesman, and husband he was 
conspicuous for true courage, high ability, and loving devotion; 
he was one of the best executives our great nation ever had, at 
all times having the strength and courage to do right because it 
was right. We admit our eyes are dim, and our faith slow, but 
great indeed must be the resulting good to compensate for the 
sacrifice demanded in his death. We can only bow to the yoke 
and pass under the rod. We are talking of monuments to his 
memory; he needs none, because, while living, he builded in the 
hearts of his people the foundation of the greatest monument 
possible to erect, one that will grow for generations as his won- 
derful life and ability grow in appreciation by the nation he so 
loved, and who twice gave him their confidence and trust. What 
monument can man build of stone to compare with the loving 
trust and sacred remembrance of 70,000,000 free people? Will- 
iam McKinley was one of Nature's noblemen, and by her richly 
endowed. John Hume, 

Governor of Delaware. 



& 



State of Washington, Executive Department, 
Olympia, September 30, 1901. 
President McKinley was an eminent man, who attained 
prominence by reason of marked abilities, both native and ac- 
quired. In all the relations of life he was exemplary. A model 
to be followed. As President of the United States, he conducted 
the nation through the Spanish War with great skill. I think 
no man in his position could have been more successful. And 
yet, with all his abilities and attainments, it may be said of him 

145 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

that nothing in his life honored him so much as his conduct at 
the time of his most lamentable taking off. At the time of the 
assassination, in all the crowd that surrounded him, his was the 
only calm and dignified presence maintained. His command, 
" Let no man hurt him," was Christ-like and passed the ordinary 
nature of man. When President Jackson was attacked by a 
would-be murderer, on leaving the hall of the House of Represen- 
tatives, the doughty old general struck viciously at his assailant 
with his cane. Jackson's attitude was proper enough and right 
enough from the human standpoint, but McKinley, under like 
circumstances, ascended to a vastly higher plane. And for this, 
and in consequence of it, he incited the universal admiration of 
the world. This wall cause him to be remembered when all else 
in connection with his career has been forgotten. 

John R. Rogers, 
Governor of Washington. 



Tahlequah, Indian Ter. 
PROCLAMATION. 

The life of President McKinley has been taken. In his 
death the Cherokees, too, sustain a loss equal to that of other 
loyal citizens of the United States. Such a calamity bows us 
clown in grief. 

Let. us show our sorrow because he died such a death, and 
express our admiration for a life deserving commendation. His 
exemplary Christian and domestic career should be copied and 
imitated in every home in the land, and his persistent effort to 
do some good for mankind should meet with approval from the 
very depth of every heart. 

Now, therefore, I, T. M. Buffington, Principal Chief of the 
Cherokee Nation, do designate Thursday next, September 19th, 
the day on which the body of the President will be interred in 

146 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

its final worldly tabernacle, as a day of prayer in this nation. 
I fervently advise that all the people throughout the Cherokee 
Xation congregate in places of worship and there hold suitable 
religious services in honor and in memory of a President whose 
life should be exemplified, and whose death grieves all good 
people. 

In witness whereof, I hereunto set my hand and cause the 
seal of the Cherokee Nation to be affixed at Tahlequah, Indian 
Territory, on this the 17th day of September, a.d. 1901. 

T. M. BuFFINGTON, 

Principal Chief of Cherokee Nation. 
By the Principal Chief: 
J. T. Parks, 

Executive Secretary. 



Executive Office, Helena, Mont. 

So much has been said and written in eulogy of the life of 
President McKinley that I cannot hope to add anything to that 
splendid monument which the press, the pulpit, and the people 
have with one accoi'd so conscientiously and lovingly erected to 
his memory. 

It was my good fortune to know him personally, and, above 
all else, I appreciated the soundness of his integrity, the purity 
of his morals, the amiableness of his urbanity, the graces of his 
modesty, and, generally, the decorations and amenities of his life. 

To my mind no President since the Revolution has been 
confronted with problems more complex or weighty than those 
which have pressed themselves upon him for consideration and 
decision. 

In a government composed of many parties reflecting all 
shades of political opinion, it would be remarkable if his states- 
manship should go unchallenged; but upon the sincerity of his 
purposes, the integrity of his motives, and the uprightness of his 

i47 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

conduct as citizen, soldier, and official, there can be but one 
opinion, and that places him high upon the roll of exemplars 
worthy of all emulation. 

These indispensable qualities, so fully exemplified in his life, 
are the fortresses behind which 70,000,000 people, devoted to 
the Constitution and the laws, stand in solid phalanx, and, 
whether pitying or defying, the stupid assassin in his vain at- 
tempt to overthrow government, are instinct with the patriotic 
sentiment of the poet who exclaimed: 

" Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State ! 
Sail on, O Union strong and great ! 
Humanity with all its fears, 
With all the hope of future years, 
Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 
We know what master laid thy keel, 
What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, 
Who made each mast, and sail and rope, 
What anvils rang, what hammers beat, 
In what a forge and what a heat 
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! " 

J. K. Toole, 
Governor of Montana. 



Dexver, Coe., September 15, 1901. 
Our departed President has shown, in his intercourse with 
the people and his devotion to his invalid wdfe, the heart and 
mind of a man fully endowed with a Christian and a charitable 
spirit. We have lost a noble and a great ruler. What this 
country owes to him in his wise management of the govern- 
mental affairs of the nation can never be realized by this genera- 
tion. His works are of the kind that endure. 

James B. Okman, 
Governor State of Colorado. 
148 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Hartford, Conn., September 15, 1901. 

It is hardly within the power of language to measure the loss 
to the nation or the feeling of sorrow and indignation that now 
fills the heart of every American worthy of the name. Such 
cowardly murders ought never to be possible, and if the Presi- 
dent cannot appear in public without danger of assassination, he 
should be absolutely protected against such danger. The civil- 
ized nations might well consider the propriety of securing an 
island where all persons of lawless and anarchistic tendencies 
could be deported without hope of escape, there to apply to each 
other without restraint their notions of social bliss. 

Anyone acqxiainted with President Roosevelt knows that he 
will meet the grave responsibilities now facing him with a cour- 
age and honesty of purpose excelled by no man, and that noth- 
ing will be done to shake the masterly, merciful, and wise policy 
of his illustrious and beloved predecessor. But the dominant 
desire of all sane people now is to have the assassination of Presi- 
dents prevented in the future, and the insane disciples of Cain 
now at large mercifully imprisoned or restricted to their own 
society. George P. McLean, 

Governor. 



Lincoln, jSTeb., September li, 1901. 
The spectacle at Buffalo is both pathetic and impressive. In 
the presence of this awful crime, organized society, sensitive of 
right and wrong, is exhausting every means within its power to 
maintain the majesty of the law. The assassin of President 
McKinley is in jail, and a cordon of police and two companies 
of militia are there to see that he is not harmed, or the law trans- 
gressed. Is this not an impressive lesson to those who preach 
the doctrine of redressing grievances through the medium of 
rapine and murder? Ezra P. Savage, 

Lieutenant Governor. 
149 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Jefferson City, Mo., September 14, 1901. 

Governor Dockery, in issuing his proclamation to-day, re- 
quested that, as a tribute of respect to the memory of our late 
President on the day set apart for his funeral all public offices 
be closed; that the people refrain from their ordinary avoca- 
tions and assemble at their usual place of worship to ask that the 
blessings of Almighty God abide with our beloved Republic. 
He said: 

" The assassin's bullet has accomplished its murderous mis- 
sion. After a courageous, hut unavailing life struggle our Presi- 
dent has passed through the valley into the great hereafter. The 
national sorrow is so overwhelming that language is utterly im- 
potent to express its abhorrence of the awful tragedy enacted 
at Buffalo. The shot that laid President McKinley low was 
aimed at our Government. A new danger menaces our free in- 
stitutions, but the American people will meet it with the same 
courage and fidelity that have hitherto enabled them to master 
grave problems." O. P. Gentry, 

Secretary to the Governor. 



Baton Rouge, La., September 15, 1901. 
It is with profound sorrow that I have learned of the death 
of the President. The South has lost a friend and the country 
a great and good man. No President since the Civil War has 
done more to destroy the feeling resulting from that strife and 
unite the two sections in cordial friendship. He had great faith 
and confidence in the masses of the people, and it is dreadful to 
contemplate that he should lose his life while exhibiting that 
confidence by mingling with the people. His home life was 
beautiful, and his devotion to his invalid wife won for him the 
affectionate regard of all good people. 

W. W. Heard. 
i5° 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Salem, Obe., September 15, 1901. 
The people of Oregon feel that they have sustained a per- 
sonal loss in the tragic death of President McKinley. It is a 
costly sacrifice to make, but the compensation will be in the 
awakened determination of the American people to proceed un- 
der a new impulse, born of the great national loss, to enact legis- 
lation which will make it a crime either to advocate the doc- 
trine of anarchy or to express sympathy with those who do. We 
have dallied with this matter too long already, and to further 
trifle with it will be suicidal. The only way to prevent the 
further spread of this poison through our governmental system 
is to prevent it. The entire State of Oregon is in mourning to- 
day, but its people- have an abiding faith in the wisdom, in- 
tegrity, and ability of the incoming Chief Executive. 

T. T. Geer. 



Helena, Mont., September 15, 1901. 
Montana mourns the President's untimely death, and will 
unite with her sister States in all lawful efforts to wipe out the 
festering remnant that inspired the insensate assassin to his aw- 
ful deed. J. K. Toole. 



Montgomery, Ala., September 15, 1901. 
State flag at half-mast; national salute now being fired from 
Capitol hill. Alabama mourns the loss of our country's great 
chieftain. John W. A. Sanford. 

151 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Frankfokt, Ky., September 14, 1901. 

The death, of President McKinley is a terrible shock to every 
American citizen, and nowhere is it more sincerely mourned than 
in Kentucky. He was a great and good man. His private life 
was pure and stainless and worthy of the emulation of any man. 
His public life, even to those who, like myself, differed from him 
in politics, was a model of patriotism and statesmanship. Big- 
hearted and broad-minded, he never showed any of that bitter- 
ness and prejudice usually engendered by sectional warfare or 
political contests, and to-day, regardless of politics or religious 
creed, in the South as well as in the North, in the West as well 
as in the East, the heart of every good American citizen is bowed 
deep with grief over the death of our honored and beloved Presi- 
dent. 

Especially do we sympathize with his noble wife, to whom 
his devotion was so loyal and beautiful. His death teaches us, 
too, that the most effective measures should be taken to stamp 
out the disease that caused it — anarchy. National and State 
legislation should be sufficiently strong to make it impossible for 
such a pest to exist on American soil, and those who teach assas- 
sination and the destruction of government should be treated as 

public enemies. 

J. C. W. Beckham. 



Carson, Nev., September 14, 1901. 
Nevada joins with the people of the United States in their 
deep sorrow for the loss of a great and good man. exalted in 
public life, unblemished in example before the world, actuated 
by unselfish sympathy for his fellow-man, and, above all, re- 
flecting the highest, devotion and love in the sacred precincts of 

domestic and social life. 

PiEinhold Sadler. 

i5 2 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Des Moines, Iowa, September 15, 1901. 

For the third time this nation stands breathless, weeping, and 
appalled at the bier of its Chief Executive. The blow struck at 
the life of the President wounded all hearts, but the sadness 
caused by his death is not greater than the remorse that such 
things are possible with a people who acknowledge no perma- 
nent national ruler but law and with whom justice, according 
to law, is a cardinal principle. The life that has thus gone out 
through violence will be the subject of many encomiums and 
volumes of well-merited praise. These four and a half years, 
during which William McKinley occupied the chair of the Chief 
Executive, will ever be an inspiration to those who shall suc- 
ceed him. To the record of these years statesman, scholar, and 
political economist will turn for helpful suggestions. To the 
brave soldier, the devoted husband, the wise statesman, the just 
and liberty-loving Chief Executive, as well as to the ideal gentle- 
man, parents will long direct their children. To the heroic yet 
calm, serene, and peaceful sufferer the Christian Church will 
ever revert for proof of what faith in God through Christ can 
do for a man in high as well as in low estate. " Xearer, My 
God, to Thee " will be sung with gentler accent because whis- 
pered with latest breath by one who was well-nigh the idol of 
80,000,000 people. 

I add an incident illustrative of the kind heart and unselfish 
interest in those about him ever manifested in this life. Dur- 
ing a trip across Iowa a crowd had gathered as usual at the rear 
of the platform, and many hands were extended that they might 
touch his, whose was a benediction. Among the number was 
a woman somewhat past the prime of life. Those who saw her 
needed not to be told that she had been a burden-bearer. Her 
clothes were plain, her figure bent, and her face bore deeply 
printed lines of care. I shall not soon forget that expression 
of admiration, almost adoration, as she looked, evidently for the 

iS3 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

first time, into the face of her President; nor shall I ever for- 
get the kindly response as he reached past several strong and 
well-dressed men to take her hand, and then, instantly remov- 
ing a carnation from the lapel of his coat, he slipped it to her 
withered hand just as the train moved out. Of course, the crowd 
responded; not so much that a flower had been presented to a 
careworn woman as in recognition of the self-forgetfulness and 
the ever-present thought and care for others which so charac- 
terized the man McKinley. Leslie M. Shaw. 



Salt Lake, Utah, September 15, 1901. 
William McKinley was the ideal President of our country. 
The economic policies with which his name is indissolubly asso- 
ciated have been vindicated by a splendor of commercial achieve- 
ments unparalleled in the history of the world. His conduct of 
the Spanish-American War developed conservative strength, dig- 
nity, and humaneness beyond the power of words to express. 
The example of his domestic life, so pure and upright, is a price- 
less heritage to the homes of our people. All in all, he was a 
valiant soldier, a wise statesman, a lovable man. His fame is 
secure in the hearts of his countrymen. His name will be for- 
ever spoken by them in conjunction with Washington and Lin- 
coln. Hebek M. Wells. 



Cheyenne, Wvo., September 14, 1901. 
The citizens of Wyoming consider President McKinley's un- 
timely death not only a national misfortune, but one personal 
to themselves as individuals. No President of the United States 
before, I believe, has been loved and respected by so many of 
his fellow-citizens as Mr. McKinley. 

De Fouest Richards. 
i54 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

Lansing, Mich., September 15, 1901. 
History will write for President McKinley one of its bright- 
est pages. His life was the exemplification of the cardinal virtues 
of Christian integrity, nobility of character, and devotion to 
duty, and was inspiration to all true Americans. Even as he 
was called to death the people were yet drinking in eagerly the 
words of his last public address, wherein he pointed out with 
prophetic vision the path his country must tread, the path of 
duty and stern responsibility. Aaron T. Bliss. 



Commonwealth of Virginia, Governor's Office, 
Richmond, Ya., September 19, 1901. 

President McKinley often spoke of Virginia as the mother 
of his State, and as the bosom of the daughter is opened to re- 
ceive his body to-day, we would have the world to know that 
Virginians are gathered here in this historic hall to give expres- 
sion to their sorrow and to do honor to his name. 

He was my friend and the friend of my people. His cour- 
tesy and kindness and his desire to help Virginia will not be 
forgotten. He was a man without bitterness, whose life was 
crowned by his effort to abolish sectional lines, and whose death 
cements the completion of his cherished work. 

Rarely has a country been called to mourn the loss of a 
chieftain so well beloved. 

" His life was gentle and the elements so mixed in him that nat- 
ure might stand up 
And say to all the world : This is a man ! " 

A gallant soldier, he was magnanimous to those less favored 
by fortune. A man, noble, courteous, and brave. A husband, 
gentle, tender, and true. A Christian, childlike, and devout and 

i55 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

even in the gathering shadows of death his faith was steadfast 
and knew no wavering. Cut off at the zenith of his glory; shot 
down while the approving plaudits of multitudes were ringing 
in his ears; he had no words save those of acquiescence in the 
divine decree, and hushed the moans of anguish in the prayer 
of " Not my will but Thine be done." The scenes around his 
deathbed are ineffaceable: Turning a longing look at the trees 
waving around his window, as if sighing for their shade once 
more, he murmured: " Oh, how beautiful," and with the glori- 
ous light of an immortal life resplendent on his brow, he said to 
her to whom he had given a wealth of love and tenderness: " It's 
God's way. Good-by, good-by." Immortal words that will re- 
sound around the world and echo in every clime, inspiring Chris- 
tian hearts to perfect faith. His life was the life of a patriot, 
his death was the death of a saint. 

While our grief is made more poignant when we recall those 
qualities of mind and heart with which William McKinley was 
endowed, and remember those gentle attributes which ever char- 
acterized him, there is something more than a personal tribute 
in these widespread manifestations of sorrow. In the tears of 
the people are the seeds of the nation's strength. Behold, what 
hath a generation wrought. The sable drapery which hangs 
around the stately columns of this old building, that once echoed 
with the noise of war, now hushed in sadness; the solemn toll 
of the bells in this, the capital city of the Confederacy — bells 
that once sounded battle alarms now pealing forth their notes 
of sorrow ; the once angry growl of the cannon, now the melan- 
choly moan of the funeral gun are alike emblems of sorrow for 
a fallen chieftain, and tributes to the enduring strength of the 
Union. 

William McKinley was the agent chosen by Providence to 
knit up the few strands of strife that remained from that great 
struggle in which he had borne such a noble part. How well 
he discharged his duty, and how fully he accomplished his work, 

'56 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

is evidenced by the people of every section clasping hands across 
his bier and mingling their tears around his tomb, while their 
voices join in requiems at his grave. 

The greatest honor paid to his memory is in the bowed 
heads and grief-stricken hearts of the old Confederates, assem- 
bled here amid the ruins of their hopes, while with unfeigned 
sorrow they mourn the loss of that illustrious man who was Presi- 
dent of all the people. Yes, his cherished ambition was to bring 
the people of every section into closer fellowship and union, and 
with generous hand he reached out to the men of the South and 
made them feel that in the great office of President partisan 
strife was forgotten. The country has lost a beloved President, 
the South a true and loyal friend. J. Hooe Tyler, 

Governor. 



State of Kansas, Executive Department, 
Governor's Office. 

The future alone will accord to President McKinley his 
proper place in history. But if his place is fixed by his successes, 
he will hold a position as one of the greatest men of the time 
in which he lived. He was the foremost champion of protection, 
and lived to see that policy crystallized into law and his fondest 
hopes realized in an era of prosperity the greatest the country 
had ever known. He was in hearty accord with his party's posi- 
tion on the question of sound money, and saw the vast business 
of the country firmly established upon that basis. He believed 
in extending the principles of popular free government to other 
countries, and was the most potent agency in establishing these 
principles in Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines. 

During his administration, under his wise and conservative 
leadership, prosperity came to the people and power to the na- 
tion, exceeding the hopes of the most sanguine of his contem- 
poraries. These results were largely due to his splendid execu- 

i57 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

tive ability and his able management of public affairs. He bad 
a large grasp of public questions, great faith in the country's 
future, was honest in public and pure in private life, and will 
take rank with the greatest of Americans. 

AY. E. Stanley. 



State of Colorado, Executive Chamber, 
Denver, October 8, 1901. 
Our late President, AA T illiam McKinley, was a true man in 
every sense of the word. He was beloved by all people, irre- 
spective of party affiliations, for his kindly Christian character, 
his charity for all, and for the courageous, yet gentle manner 
in which he managed the governmental affairs of the nation. 

The way in which he solved the many and difficult problems 
devolving upon him, both foreign and domestic, showed him 
to be one of the greatest diplomats the world has ever known. 

The home is one of the bulwarks of the American nation, 
and in that phase of his life he set an example to all home-lov- 
ing citizens. The love and devotion which he bestowed upon his 
invalid wife were touching in the extreme. 

He was ever ready to give his service to his country. As a 
young man he fought gallantly for the maintenance of the 
Union. In later years, in the halls of Congress, he rendered 
most valuable and efficient services to his country, and during 
his occupancy of the Presidential chair he rendered a service to 
all humanity. 

His name will go down in history with the great men of 
the world. The foundation which he laid is of the enduring 
kind, and thereon will be built a structure which will be ever- 
lasting, a great and glorious nation. 

Very truly yours, 

James B. Orman, 

Governor. 
158 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

State of South Carolina, Executive Chamber, 
Columbia. 

The greatest glory which can be achieved by mortal man is 
so to live that when his life is done and he has passed away, his 
worth as a man, his dignity of character, his simple nobility of 
mind and heart, his every step in the walk of life, which was 
to him but the path of duty, shall be pointed out by the Chris- 
tian mothers of this land to their sons as worthy of emulation. 
Such a life was that of William McKinley. The lustre of his 
official career may grow dim with the passing years, his glory 
as the ruler of a great nation may fade, but his private life, his 
obedience as a son, his faithfulness as a soldier, his tenderness 
as a husband and father, will live forever. 

Step by step he had gone up the rungs of the ladder of fame 
until he had reached the height of man's ambition. 

It was then that the fatal blow which laid him cold in death 
was struck — a blow aimed not at him, but at us, at our institu- 
tions, at our republican form of government, a blow the object 
of which was to destroy all government. But ere that fatal 
blow was struck, the purpose for which he lived had been accom- 
plished, his life-work was done. Under his administration the 
North and South were more strongly united, not by the cruel 
and stern decree of war, but by the indissoluble and holy bonds 
of brotherly love. He had taken up the work where the im- 
mortal Grady had laid it down, and the cold, still form of him 
to whom it had been allowed to contribute so much to this great 
work was laid to rest in his native soil 'mid the sobs and tears 
of a united people. 

To the South the memory of President McTunley will always 
be sacrerl, and our people will ever think of him with feelings of 
tenderness mingled with reverence. Never will his words, de- 
livered at the Atlanta reunion of the old Confederates, be for- 
gotten here, for there it was that he said he wanted the graves 

iS9 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

of our heroic dead to be cared for by the National Government. 
No petty jealousies rankled in his breast, he was the President 
of no section or party, but he saw the " glorious future that 
awaits us if unitedly, wisely, and bravely we face the new prob- 
lems now pressing upon us, determined to solve them for right 
and humanity." 

He himself had entered that bloody strife as a private and 
had done his duty as a soldier and as a man, and when the smoke 
of battle had lifted and the turmoil and din of the strife was 
over, there was no animosity in his heart against a cause that 
was forever fallen, and he offered us the hand of friendship and 
wanted us to be once again his brothers. 

All honor to the memory of AYilliam McKinley, and may the 
mourning of a nation in some degree comfort the wufe of his 
bosom. M. B. McSweeney, 

Governor. 



State of Kentucky, Executive Office, 
Frankfort. 
The death of President McKinley is a terrible shock to 
every American citizen, and nowhere is it more sincerely 
mourned than in Kentucky. He was a great and a good man. 
His private life was pure and stainless and worthy the emula- 
tion of any man. His public life, even to those who, like my- 
self, differed from him in politics, was a model of patriotism 
and statesmanship. Big-hearted and broad-minded, he never 
showed any of that bitterness and prejudice usually engendered 
by sectional warfare or political contests, and to-day, regardless 
of political or religious creed, in the South as well as in the 
North, in the "West as well as in the East, the heart of every 
good American citizen is bowed deep in grief over the death 
of our honored and beloved President. Especially do we sym- 

160 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

pathize with his noble wife, to whom his devotion was so loyal 
and beautiful. 

His death teaches us, too, that the most effective measures 
should be taken to stamp out the disease that caused it — anarchy. 
National and State legislation should be sufficiently strong to 
make it impossible for such a pest to exist on American soil, 
and those who teach assassination and the destruction of govern- 
ment should be treated as public enemies. 

J. C. W. Beckham, 
Governor of Kentucky. 



Jackson, Miss., September 14, 1901. 
The people of Mississippi mourn the untimely death of the 
President. As a tribute of respect the different departments of 
the State Government have been closed for the day and the flag 
on the Capitol hung at half-mast. 

James T. Harrison, 
Lieutenant-Governor and Acting Governor. 



State of Louisiana, Executive Department, 
Baton Rouge, October 8, 1901. 
The life, character, and public services of President McKin- 
ley have demonstrated in the highest degree the superiority of 
our free institutions over those governments where distinctions 
are limited and these reserved almost exclusively to favored 
classes. The career of President McKinley, starting from the 
common plane of the American youth, rising from the ranks in 
the volunteer army to the grade of major — onward to a Con- 
gressional seat, then to the gubernatorial chair of his State, did 
not culminate with his elevation to the Presidency. He as- 
cended from the Presidency to the loftier sphere of the patriot, 

161 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

when be sought, and not in vain, to heal the wounds left open 
by decades of sectional strife. In receiving his death-wound 
he presented an example of courage, fortitude, magnanimity, and 
sublime faith in his Creator, which was a fitting apotheosis of a 
life of devotion to country and home, such as the history of no 
other nation in ancient or modern times has shown. 

Very respectfully, 

W. W. Heard, 

Governor. 



The State of "Wyoming, Executive Department, 
Cheyenne, October 11, 1901. 

The heritage of a country, in the example of a great and 
good man, is a precious boon to those who come after him, as 
rulers of a land which he loved and honored. 

Mr. McKinley served his country on the battle-field, in the 
halls of Congress, in the highest office of his State, and as Presi- 
dent of the United States, and died with no blemish on his 
character or reputation. 

He was a courageous soldier, an able statesman, an honor- 
able President, and an honest man; his private life was pure 
and above reproach. His kindly heart and his untiring devo- 
tion to his country, his family and his friends, has caused him 
to be loved and respected by the people of the United States as 
no other citizen has been, for 

" He hath kept the whiteness of his soul, 
And thus men o'er him wept." 

If our young men, who will soon be the chosen rulers of 
this nation, will emulate his example in their private and pub- 
lic lives, we can look forward to a national existence that will 
be the pride of our own citizens, and the admiration of the 
civilized world. DeF. Richards. 

162 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

State of New York, Executive Chamber. 
Albany, October 15, 1901. 
It is seldom that a man in public life secures such a hold on 
the affections of the people as that which our late President ob- 
tained during his life. His public life was of such a character 
as to be above criticism, and his tragic death has but accentuated 
in the hearts of the American people the virtues which he was 
known to possess. During his long public career the breath of 
dishonor never touched him, and his domestic life was as pure 
as his public record. Outside of these virtues, for which he was 
loved and for which his memory will be revered, his official acts 
will perpetuate his fame. It is needless to recapitulate them. 
His name was closely connected with the economic measures that 
have done so much to bring about the present era of prosperity, 
and the history of our Government for the past four years may 
be written as the history of William McEnley. 

B. B. Odell, 

Governor. 



PROCLAMATION. 

Executive Department, State of California, 

Sacramento. 
At this time of a nation's sorrow, the people of the State of 
California join in the deep grief shared by their fellow-citizens 
in all the States and Territories of the Union, on account of the 
sad and untimely death, on the 11th day of September, a.d. 
1901, of our grand and good President, William McTCmley. 

To the list of sacrifices of those whose eminent statesmanship 
was guided by a devotion to American liberty, and by a sin- 
cere love for their fellow-men, our Republic now despondently 

J63 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

adds to the revered and lamented names of Lincoln and Garfield, 
her beloved son, the martyred William McKinley. 

In public testimony of the sorrow of the people of the State 
of California, for the loss of their illustrious President and noble 
citizen, William McKinley, I, as the Chief Executive of the 
State, do hereby order that the flags be placed and kept at half- 
mast on all the State buildings for thirty days from this date. 
I do further order that the day which shall hereafter be selected 
and set apart for the funeral of President McKinley be, and the 
same is hereby declared to be a public holiday for general prayer 
and mourning. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused 
the great seal of this State to be hereunto affixed, this 14th day 
of September, a.d. 1901. Henry T. Gage, 

Governor of the State of California. 

Attest: C. F. Cukky, 

Secretary of State. 



Executive Department, State of South Dakota, 
Pierre, October 10, 1901. 

The terrible tragedy enacted in the Music Hall on the Ex- 
position grounds in Buffalo brought the most poignant grief to 
the civilized world. To every patriotic home his death came 
with the force of a terrible personal bereavement. 

Throughout all history, few men have ever been so univer- 
sally loved by his countrymen and respected and mourned by 
the nations of the world. 

In history William McKinley will occupy an illustrious posi- 
tion. His exalted character, his Christian fortitude and piety, 
his patriotism, his splendid achievements will forever be treas- 
ured as a most sacred heritage. 

He lived and ruled during the most critical period in the 

164 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

history of our country. Urged on by the mystic forces of un- 
foreseen events he sacredly and successfully directed the course 
of the nation, when it grandly emerged as a world-power. 

The memorable words of Garfield, in his eulogy upon the 
lamented Lincoln and later applied by licKinley to Garfield, 
may now fittingly be applied to the martyred McKinley. 

" He loved to clutch the Golden Keys, 
To mold a mighty State's decree, 
And shape the whispers of the throne ; 
And, moving up, from higher to higher, 
Becomes on Fortune's crowning slope, 
The pillar of a Nation's hope, 
The centre of the World's desire." 

Chables N. Hehried, 
Governor of South Dakota. 



State of Ohio, Executive Department, 
Office of the Governor, 
Columbus, October 15, 1901. 
The Continental Assembly, 

Corcoran Building, Washington, D. C. 
Gentlemen: The Governor directs me to acknowledge the 
receipt of your favor of the 3d inst., in which you ask for his 
eulogy on the life and character of the late lamented Presi- 
dent, for publication in General Grosvenor's book. Enclosed 
herewith please find a copy of the remarks delivered by the 
Governor upon this subject before the Franklin County Bar 
Association. He desires that this shall be used for your pub- 
lication. Very truly yours, 

Frederick N. Sinks. 
Private Secretary. 

165 



ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR GEORGE K. NASH AT 
THE McKINLEY MEMORIAL MEETING OF THE 
FRANKLIN COUNTY BAR. 

Columbus, O., Saturday, September 21, 1901. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen: It is a privilege which I 
esteem most highly to be permitted to join with my fellow-mem- 
bers of the bar of Franklin County in doing honor to one of the 
greatest and most patriotic Presidents the United States ever had. 

It is proper that we should do so because the bar of Ohio 
furnished this man to our country. We all mourn his loss most 
deeply. We miss him as a friend; we miss him as President, 
and the State and nation have done all the honor they could 
in laying his remains away to rest in his beloved city of Canton. 

We ought to be thankful that he has left behind him a 
noble life, which will forever be remembered by the American 
people. It will be a lesson to all generations to come of the 
patriotism of a great man. The whole life of William McKin- 
ley was devoted to the service of his country. When as a private 
soldier he trudged over the National Pike from Columbus to 
Camp Chase, carrying his musket upon his shoulder, he began 
to teach us that lesson of patriotism. Every act of his during 
the days of war, from 1861 to 1865, ought to inspire the young 
men of this country to devote themselves to the nation which 
he loved so well. When he returned home as other soldiers did, 
he prepared himself for the bar, was admitted, and during the 
short period that he engaged in the practice of law he showed 
himself to be a man who would make an eminent lawyer. 

But his love of country called his footsteps in another direc- 
tion. He became a member of the Congress of the United States. 

166 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

In that gTeat body he was inspired by the same patriotism which 
moved him from 1861 to 1865; his every act, his every thought, 
all his work were for the benefit of his country. Then he be- 
came the Governor of our beloved State. As such Governor 
most of us knew him personally and learned to love him. We 
loved him because he was a faithful official; because he was 
upright and honest, and because his every thought was for the 
benefit of the State which he governed. 

The people of the United States learned to know William 
McKinley as we knew him and they called him to be President 
of this country. He seems to have been called just at the right 
moment, as Lincoln was. He was called just as this country 
was to engage in war with a foreign power. The duties which 
were thrust upon him were irksome; they were exacting, but 
the patriotism of William McKinley caused him to discharge 
every duty in the most faithful manner. Victory soon came 
for this country, a victory which had been planned by William 
McKinley; our armies and our navies were guided by his hand, 
and it was his faithful heart that sustained our flag in every 
conflict. Complete victory was achieved; a new and a great 
work was undertaken for the nation. 

His plans for the greatness and future growth of our nation 
had been unfolded, and just then God called him home. In 
this life which I have briefly epitomized is a monument to the 
glory of William McKinley more lasting than any that can be 
devised by the mind or constructed by the hand of man. It 
will be a lesson which will be studied by the young men of this 
country for all time. It will teach them to love their country, 
to love their flag, and cause them to ward off danger from this 
Republic whenever it may approach. 



167 



President McKinley's Last Speech 

Delivered September 5, 1901, President's Day, at 
the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo 



President Milburn, Director-General Buchanan, Commis- 
sioners, Ladies, and Gentlemen: I am glad to again be in the 
city of Buffalo and exchange greetings with her people, to whose 
generous hospitality I am not a stranger, and with whose good- 
will I have been repeatedly and signally honored. To-day I 
have additional satisfaction in meeting and giving welcome to 
the foreign representatives assembled here, whose presence and 
participation in this Exposition have contributed in so marked 
a degree to its interest and success. To the Commissioners of 
the Dominion of Canada and the British Colonies, the French 
Colonies, the republics of Mexico and of Central and South 
America, and the Commissioners of Cuba and Porto Rico, who 
share with us in this undertaking, we give the hand of fellow- 
ship, and felicitate with them upon the triumphs of art, science, 
education, and manufacture, which the old has bequeathed to 
the new century. 

Expositions are the time-keepers of progress. They record 
the world's advancement. They stimulate the energy, enter- 
prise, and intellect of the people, and quicken human genius. 
They go into the home. They broaden and brighten the daily 
life of the people. They open mighty storehouses of informa- 
tion to the student. Every exposition, great or small, has helped 
to some onward step. 

Comparison of ideas is always educational, and as such in- 

168 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

structa the brain and baud of men. Friendly rivalry follows, 
which is the spur to industrial improvement, the inspiration to 
useful invention and to high endeavor in all departments of 
human activity. It exacts a study of the wants, comforts, and 
even the whims of the people, and recognizes the efficacy of 
high quality and low prices to win their favor. The quest for 
trade is an incentive to men of business to devise, invent, im- 
prove, and economize in the cost of production. Business life, 
whether among ourselves or with other peoples, is ever a sharp 
struggle for success. It will be none the less so in the future. 
Without competition we would be clinging to the clumsy and 
antiquated processes of farming and manufacture, and the 
methods of business of long ago, and the twentieth would be 
no further advanced than the eighteenth century. But though 
commercial competitors we are, commercial enemies we must 
not be. 

The Pan-American Exposition has done its work thoroughly, 
presenting in its exhibits evidences of the highest skill and illus- 
trating the progress of the human family in the western hemi- 
sphere. This portion of the earth has no cause for humiliation 
for the part it has performed in the march of civilization. It 
has not accomplished everything; far from it. It has simply 
done its best, and without vanity or boastfulness, and recogniz- 
ing the manifold achievements of others, it invites the friendly 
rivalry of all the Powers in the peaceful pursuits of trade and 
commerce, and will co-operate with all in advancing the high- 
est and best interests of humanity. The wisdom and energy 
of all the nations are none too great for the world's work. The 
success of art, science, industry, and invention is an international 
asset, and a common glory. 

After all, how near one to the other is every part of the 
world. Modern inventions have brought into close relation 
widely separated peoples and made them better acquainted. 
Geographic and political divisions will continue to exist, but 

169 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

distances have been effaced. Swift ships and fast trains are 
becoming cosmopolitan. They invade fields which a few years 
ago were impenetrable. The world's products are exchanged 
as never before and with increasing transportation facilities come 
increasing knowledge and larger trade. Prices are fixed with 
mathematical precision by supply and demand. The world's 
selling prices are regulated by market and crop reports. We 
travel greater distances in a shorter space of time and with more 
ease than was ever dreamed of by the fathers. Isolation is no 
longer possible or desirable. The same important news is read, 
though in different languages, the same day in all Christendom. 
The telegraph keeps us advised of what is occurring every- 
where, and the press foreshadows, with more or less accuracy, 
the plans and purposes of the nations. Market prices of products 
and of securities are hourly known in every commercial mart, 
and the investments of the people extend beyond their own 
national boundaries into the remotest parts of the earth. Vast 
transactions are conducted and international exchanges are made 
by the tick of the cable. Every event of interest is immediately 
bulletined. The quick gathering and transmission of news, like 
rapid transit, are of recent origin, and are only made possible 
by the genius of the inventor and the courage of the investor. 
It took a special messenger of the Government, with every facil- 
ity known at the time for rapid travel, nineteen days to go from 
the city of Washington to New Orleans with a message to Gen- 
eral Jackson that the war with England had ceased and a treaty 
of peace had been signed. How different now. We reached 
General Miles, in Porto Rico, and he was able through the mili- 
tary telegraph to stop his army on the firing line with the mes- 
sage that the United States- and Spain had signed a protocol 
suspending hostilities. We knew almost instantly of the first 
shots fired at Santiago, and the subsequent surrender of the 
Spanish forces was known at Washington within less than an 
hour of its consummation. The first ship of Cervera's fleet had 

170 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

hardly emerged from that historic harhor when the fact was 
flashed to our Capitol, and the swift destruction that followed 
was announced immediately through the wonderful medium of 
telegraphy. 

So accustomed are we to safe and easy communication with 
distant lands that its temporary interruption, even in ordinary 
times, results in loss and inconvenience. We shall never for- 
get the days of anxious waiting and suspense when no informa- 
tion was permitted to be sent from Pekin, and the diplomatic 
representatives of the nations in China, cut off from all com- 
munication, inside and outside of the walled capital, were sur- 
rounded by an angry and misguided mob that threatened their 
lives; nor the joy that thrilled the world when a single mes- 
sage from the Government of the United States brought through 
our Minister the first news of the safety of the besieged diplo- 
mats. 

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not a 
mile of steam railroad on the globe ; now there are enough miles 
to make its circuit many times. Then there was not a line of 
electric telegraph; now we have a vast mileage traversing all 
lands and all seas. God and man have linked the nations to- 
gether. Ko nation can longer be indifferent to any other. And 
as we are brought more and more in touch with each other, the 
less occasion is there for misunderstandings, and the stronger 
the disposition, when we have differences, to adjust them in the 
court of arbitration, which is the noblest forum for the settle- 
ment of international disputes. 

My fellow-citizens, trade statistics indicate that this coun- 
try is in a state of unexampled prosperity. The figures are al- 
most appalling. They show that we are utilizing our fields and 
forests and mines, and that we are furnishing profitable em- 
ployment to the millions of workingmen throughout the United 
States, bringing comfort and happiness to their homes, and mak- 
ing it possible to lay by savings for old age and disability. That 

171 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

all the people are participating in this great prosperity is seen 
in every American community and shown by the enormous and 
unprecedented deposits in our savings banks. Our duty in the 
care and security of these deposits and their safe investment 
demands the highest integrity and the best business capacity of 
those in charge of these depositories of the people's earnings. 

We have a vast and intricate business, built up through years 
of toil and struggle, in which every part of the country has its 
stake, which will not permit of either neglect, or of undue self- 
ishness. No narrow, sordid policy will subserve it. The great- 
est skill and wisdom on the part of manufacturers and producers 
will be required to hold and increase it. Our industrial enter- 
prises, which have grown to such great proportions, affect the 
homes and occupations of the people and the welfare of the 
country. Our capacity to produce has developed so enor- 
mously and our products have so multiplied that the problem of 
more markets recpiires our urgent and immediate attention. 
Only a broad and enlightened policy will keep what we have. 
No other policy will get more. In these times of marvellous 
business energy and gain we ought to be looking to the future, 
strengthening the weak places in our industrial and commercial 
systems, that we may be ready for any storm or strain. 

By sensible trade arrangements which will not interrupt our 
home production we shall extend the outlets for our increasing 
surplus. A system which provides a mutual exchange of com- 
modities is manifestly essential to the continued and healthful 
growth of our export trade. We must not repose in fancied 
security that we can forever sell everything and buy little or 
nothing. If such a thing were possible it would not be best for 
us or for those with whom we deal. We should take from our 
customers such of their products as we can use without harm 
to our industries and labor. Reciprocity is the natural out- 
growth of our wonderful industrial development under the do- 
mestic policy now firmly established. 

172 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

What we produce beyond our domestic consumption must 
have a vent abroad. The excess must be relieved through a for- 
eign outlet, and we should sell everywhere we can and buy 
wherever the buying will enlarge our sales and productions, and 
thereby make a greater demand for home labor. 

The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of our 
trade and commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial wars 
are unprofitable. A policy of good-will and friendly trade rela- 
tions will prevent reprisals. Reciprocity treaties are in harmony 
with the spirit of the times; measures of retaliation are not. If, 
perchance, some of our tariffs are no longer needed for revenue 
or to encourage and protect our industries at home, why should 
they not be employed to extend and promote our markets abroad? 
Then, too, we have inadequate steamship service. New lines 
of steamships have already been put in commission between the 
Pacific coast ports of the United States and those on the western 
coasts of Mexico and Central and South America. These should 
be followed up with direct steamship lines between the western 
coast of the United States and South American ports. One of 
the needs of the times is direct commercial lines from our vast 
fields of production to the fields of consumption that we have 
but barely touched. Next in advantage to having the thing to 
sell is to have the conveyance to carry it to the buyer. We must 
encourage our merchant marine. We must have more ships. 
They must be under the American flag, built and manned and 
owned by Americans. These will not only be profitable in a 
commercial sense; they will be messengers of peace and amity 
wherever they go. 

We must build the Isthmian Canal, which will unite the two 
oceans and give a straight line of water communication with the 
western coasts of Central and South America and Mexico. The 
construction of a Pacific cable cannot be longer postponed. In 
the furtherance of these objects of national interest and concern 
you are performing an important part. This Exposition would 

i73 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

have touched the heart of that American statesman whose mind 
was ever alert and thought ever constant for a larger commerce 
and a truer fraternity of the republics of the New World. His 
broad American spirit is felt and manifested here. He needs 
no identification to an assemblage of Americans anywhere, for 
the name of Blaine is inseparably associated with the Pan-Ameri- 
can movement which finds here practical and substantial ex- 
pression, and which we all hope will be firmly advanced by the 
Pan-American Congress that assembles this autumn in the cap- 
ital of Mexico. The good work will go on. It cannot be stopped. 
These buildings will disappear; this creation of art and beauty 
and industry will perish from sight, but their influence will re- 
main to " make it live beyond its too short living with praises 
and thanksgiving." Who can tell the new thoughts that have 
been awakened, the ambitions fired, and the high achievements 
that will be wrought through this Exposition? 

Let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not 
conflict; and that our real eminence rests in the victories of 
peace, not those of war. We hope that all who are represented 
here may be moved to higher and nobler effort for their own 
and the world's good, and that out of this city may come not 
only greater commerce and trade for us all, but, more essential 
than these, relations of mutual respect, confidence, and friend- 
ship which will deepen and endure. Our earnest prayer is that 
God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness, and peace 
to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all the peoples and 
powers of earth. 



174 



The Story of President McKinley's 
Boyhood by His Mother 



I make acknowledgments to Julius Chambers, special corre- 
spondent of the New York Journal, for the following sketch of 
President McKinley's boyhood from his mother. It is an in- 
spiration to boys and young men, and to everyone to nobler 
thought and action. C. H. Gkosvenok. 

The Mother's Story. 

I don't think my bringing up had so very much to do with 
making my son William the President of the United States. I 
had six children, and I had all my own work to do. I did the 
best I could, of course, but I could not devote all of my time 
to him. 

William was naturally a good boy. He was not particularly 
a good baby. He cried a great deal. He was very bright, and 
he began to take notice of things very young. He was a healthy 
boy. 

We lived in a country village, and he had plenty of outdoor 
air and exercise. He was a good boy in school, and his teachers 
always said he was very bright. He had his little squabbles 
with his brothers and sisters, I suppose, like all other children. 
I never paid much attention to that. He was always an obedient 
boy. He was very affectionate and he was very fond of his 
home. 

i75 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

We were Methodists, though we never went to the extent of 
curbing the innocent sports of the children. William was taken 
to Sunday-school about the same time that he began his studies 
in the village schoolhouse. He continued to be a faithful attend- 
ant every Sunday till he went away to the war. I brought up 
all my children to understand that they must study and im- 
prove their minds. 

My ideas of an education were wholly practical, not theo- 
retical. I put the children into school just as early as they 
could go alone to the teacher, and then kept them at it. I didn't 
allow them to stay away. As you may imagine, I had little 
time for their studies, though I kept track of their work in a 
general way through the reports and their teachers. I did most 
of the household work, except the washing and ironing, and 
made nearly all the children's clothes; but I saw that the chil- 
dren were up in the morning, had breakfast, and were promptly 
ready for school. 

That was the way five days of every week began for me. 
Ours was a hard, earnest life. My husband was always an 
early riser, and off to his work. I am now speaking of our life 
in Mies. At Poland he was away from home most of the time, 
and the whole burden of the family cares fell on me. 

We moved to Poland when William was about eleven years 
old. We went there because the schools were better. My hus- 
band was a foundryman, and his work kept him at Niles. 

William was a great hand for marbles, and he was very 
fond of his bow and arrow. He got so that he was a very good 
shot with the arrow and could hit almost anything that he aimed 
at. The thing he loved best of all was a kite. It seems to 
me I never went into the kitchen without seeing a paste-pot or 
a ball of string, waiting to be made into a kite. He never cared 
much for pets. I don't believe he ever had one. 

We did not own a horse, so he never rode or drove. He 
was always teasing to go barefooted the minute he came home 

176 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

from school. In going barefooted, when he stubbed a toe or 
bruised his foot he was as proud of it as a king in showing 
the injury to other boys. When summer came he always had 
a stone bruise, and his shoes came off when the snow was off 
the ground. 

Although William had no taste for fishing, and rarely, if 
ever, attempted the sport, he was very fond of swimming in 
the deep pool on Yellow Creek, a little way above the dam. 
The swimming hole was reached by the left bank of the river, 
after crossing the bridge, and was shaded by a large black oak 
that spread its branches far over the water. Here the boys used 
to go after school on warm summer evenings and splash about 
in the water for some time. 

Our first home in Poland was on the main street, just east 
of the corner store. It was — and still is — a frame building, 
painted slate color, and was not as large as the houses we after- 
ward dwelt in. I judge that it has not changed. Our second 
residence was further down the street, toward the mill, where 
Dr. Elliott now lives. The third house, now occupied by Mrs. 
Smithers, was on the opposite side from the other two and had 
a veranda along the entire front of the house. 

William was promptly entered at the seminary, and de- 
veloped strong inclinations to study. In time he became a mem- 
ber of the literary association in the Poland Union Seminary, 
as the institution was called, and I frequently heard of his taking 
part in debates and other literary contests. Mrs. Morse, who 
was his teacher, says that he excelled in the study of languages, 
although he was fairly good at figures. I know that he was 
a constant reader, and by the time he was fifteen he began to 
read poetry, being especially fond of Longfellow and Whittier, 
and, I believe, Byron. From this time of his boyhood he gave 
up most of his sports, except ball playing, swimming, and skat- 
ing. The boys played ball on the common behind the burying 
ground and also behind the seminary. 

i77 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Politically, the McKinleys were stanch abolitionists, and 
William early imbibed very radical views regarding the enslave- 
ment of the colored race. As a mere boy, he used to go to a 
tannery kept by Joseph Smith and engage in warm controversies 
on the slavery question. Mr. Smith was a Democrat, and so 
were several of the workmen about the tannery. These disputes 
never seemed to have occasioned any ill feeling toward William, 
because he was always popular with the very men with whom 
he had the most controversy. This was shown, also, by his 
being selected as a clerk at the little post office. As William 
grew older he developed fondness for the society of young 
women. This was encouraged by me. He had always shown 
great affection for his sisters, often preferring to remain indoors 
with them on holidays rather than to join in sports with other 
boys on the common. 

His boyhood days ended when he left home to go to the 
war. That took him out into the world in the broadest sense. 
Except a few weeks at Allegheny College, this was his first ab- 
sence from home. 

What do I regard as essential in bringing up a boy to be 
President? I can scarcely say; there are so many things to 
teach boys. They should be taught to be honest in dealing with 
their fellow-men. They should win their respect and confidence. 
Then, boys should be brought up to love home, if you want to 
make good men and Presidents, too, of them. The home train- 
ing, such as is inculcated in the true American home, is a great 
safeguard to the lads of this country. Boys, to be good men, 
must be good to their parents. Any boy who wants to be 
President should be honest and truthful, and he should love 
his home, his family, and his country. No boy will ever be 
President who is afraid of hard work. I think religion is a 
great thing for a boy. I knew William was a bright boy and 
a good boy, but I never dreamed that he would be President of 

the United States. 

178 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

After all, I don't believe I did raise the boy to be Presi- 
dent. I tried to bring up the boy to be a good man, and that 
is the best that any mother can do. The first thing I knew, 
my son turned around and began to raise me to be the mother 
of a President. 



179 



PRAYER FOR PRESIDENT McKINLEY IN THE RO- 
TUNDA OF THE CAPITOL BUILDING, WASH- 
INGTON, D. C., BY REV. DR. HENRY R. NAY- 
LOR. 

O Lord God, our Heavenly Father, a bereaved nation com- 
eth to Thee in its deep sorrow. To whom can we go in such 
an hour as this but unto Thee? Thou only art able to com- 
fort and support the afflicted. Death strikes down the tallest 
and best of men, and consequent changes are continually occur- 
ring among nations and communities. But we have been taught 
that Thou art the same yesterday, to-day, and forever; that 
with Thee there is no variableness nor the least shadow of turn- 
ing. So in the midst of our grief we turn to Thee for help. 

We thank Thee, O Lord, that years ago Thou didst give 
to this nation a man whose loss we mourn to-day. We thank 
Thee for the pure and unselfish life he was enabled to live in 
the midst of so eventful an experience. We thank Thee for the 
faithful and distinguished services which he was enabled to ren- 
der to Thee, to our country, and to the world. We bless Thee 
for such a citizen, for such a lawmaker, for such a Governor, 
for such a President, for such a husband, for such a Christian 
example, and for such a friend. 

But, O Lord, we deplore our loss to-day; we sincerely im- 
plore Thy sanctifying benediction. We pray Thee for that dear 
one who has been walking by his side through the years, shar- 
ing his triumphs and partaking of his sorrows. Give to her all 
needed sustenance and the comfort her stricken heart so greatly 
craves. And under the shadow of this great calamity may she 

1 80 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

learn as never before the fatherhood of God and the matchless 
character of His sustaining grace. 

And, O Lord, we sincerely pray for him upon whom the 
mantle of Presidential authority has so suddenly and unexpect- 
edly fallen. Help him to walk worthy the high vocation where- 
unto he has been called. He needs Thy guiding hand and Thine 
inspiring spirit continually. May he always present to the na- 
tion and to the world divinely illumined judgment, a brave heart, 
and an unsullied character. 

Hear our prayer, O Lord, for the official family of the ad- 
ministration, those men who are associated with Thy servant, 
the President, in the administration of affairs of government; 
guide them in all their deliberations to the nation's welfare and 
the glory of God. 

And now, Lord, we humbly pray for Thy blessing and 
consolation to come to all the people of our land and nation. 
Forgive our past shortcomings, our sins of omission as well as our 
sins of commission. Help us to make the Golden Rule the stand- 
ard of our lives, that we may " do unto others as we would have 
them do unto us," and thus become indeed a people whose God 
is the Lord. 

These things we humbly ask in the name of Him who 
taught us when we pray to say: " Our Father, which art in 
heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will 
be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily 
bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that 
trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver 
us from evil; for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the 
glory, forever, amen. 



i8r 



EX-PRESIDENT CLEVELAND'S EULOGY, DELIV- 
ERED BEFORE THE FACULTY AND STUDENTS 
OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. 

To-day the grave closes over the man that had been chosen 
by the people of the United States to represent their sovereignty, 
to protect and defend their Constitution, to faithfully execute 
the laws made for their welfare, and to safely uphold the integ- 
rity of the Republic. 

He passes from the public sight not bearing the wreaths and 
garlands of his countrymen's approving acclaim, but amid the 
sobs and tears of a mourning nation. The whole nation loved 
their President. His kindly disposition and affectionate traits, 
his amiable consideration for all around him, will long be in 
the hearts of his countrymen. He loved them in return with 
such patriotism and unselfishness that in this hour of their grief 
and humiliation he would say to them, "It is God's will; I 
am content. If there is a lesson in my life or death, let it be 
taught to those who still live and have the destiny of their coun- 
try in their keeping." 

First in my thoughts are the lessons to be learned from the 
career of William McKinley by the young men who make up 
the students to-day of our university. They are not obscure 
nor difficult. The man who is universally mourned to-day was 
not deficient in education, but with all you will have of his 
grand career and his services to his country, you will not hear 
that what he accomplished was due entirely to his education. 
He was an obedient and affectionate son, patriotic and faithful 
as a soldier, hones*, and upright as a citizen, tender and devoted 

182 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

as a husband, and truthful, generous, unselfish, moral, and clean 
in every relation of life. 

There is a most serious lesson for all of us in the tragedy 
of our late President's death. If we are to escape further attacks 
upon our peace and security, we must boldly and resolutely 
grapple with the monster of anarchy. It is not a thing that we 
can safely leave to be dealt with by party or partisanship. Noth- 
ing can guarantee us against its menace except the teaching and 
the practice of the best citizenship, the exposure of the ends and 
aims of the gospel of discontent and hatred of social order, and 
the brave enactment and execution of repressive laws. 

By the memory of our martyred President let us resolve to 
cultivate and preserve the qualities that made him great and 
useful, and let us determine to meet the call of patriotic duty 
in every time of our country's danger or need. 



183 



Some Time We'll Understand 

Not now, but in the coming years, 

It may be in the better land, 
We'll read the meaning of our tears, 

And there, some time, we'll understand. 

We'll catch the broken thread again, 

And finish what we here began; 
Heav'n will the mysteries explain, 

And then, ah, then, we'll understand. 

We'll know why clouds instead of sun 
Were over many a cherished plan; 

Why song has ceased when scarce begun; 
'Tis there, some time, we'll understand. 

Why what we long for most of all 

Eludes so oft our eager hand; 
Why hopes are crushed and castles fall, 

Up there, some time, we'll understand. 

God knows the way, He holds the key, 

He guides us with unerring hand. 
Some time with tearless eyes we'll see; 

Yes there, up there, we'll understand. 

CHORUS. 

Then trust in God through all thy days; 

Fear not, for He doth hold thy hand; 
Though dark thy way, still sing and praise; 

Some time, some time, we'll understand. 

The foregoing verses, most appropriate to the occasion, were 
so touchingly sung by Mrs. T. L. Xoyes at the funeral services 
in the Rotunda of the Capitol as our late President's remains 
rested there, that all who heard her, including the great men 
of our land, were melted to tears. 

184 



Last Words of Famous Men and 

Women 



" Good-by all. It is God's way — His 'will, not ours, be 
done."— William McKinley (1843-1901). 

The dying words of great men are of especial significance 
at this time, when all the world is reverently discussing the 
death of President McKinley and the words of Christian resig- 
nation with which he bade farewell to life: 

Adams, John (1735-1826), American statesman: "Jeffer- 
son survives." 

Adams, John Quincy (1767-1848), American statesman: 
" This is the last of earth ! I am content ! " 

Beethoven, Ludwig (1770-1827), German composer: "I 
shall hear now! " (He was deaf.) 

Bozzaris, Markos (1790-1823), Greek patriot: " To die for 
liberty is a pleasure and not a pain." 

Bronte, Charlotte (1816-1855), English novelist: "I am 
not going to die, am I? He -will not separate us, we have been 
so happy! " (To her husband.) 

Brooks, Phillips (1835-1893), American clergyman: " Katie, 
you may go; I shall not need you any more. I am going home." 

Buckland, Francis (1826-1880), English naturalist: " I am 
going on a long journey, and I shall see many strange animals 
by the way." 

Burke, Edmund (1730-1797), English statesman: "God 
bless vou." 

185 



WILLIAM MoKINLEY 

Burns, Robert (1759-1796), Scottish poet: " Don't let that 
awkward squad fire over my grave." 

Byron, Lord (1788-1824), English poet: "I must sleep 
now." 

Calvin, John (1509-1564), Protestant reformer: "Thou, 
Lord, bruisest me; but I am abundantly satisfied, since it is 
from Thy hand." 

Chalmers, Thomas (1780-1847), Scottish divine: " A gen- 
eral good-night." 

Charles I. of England (1600-1649): "Remember." 

Charles II. of England (1630-1685): "Don't let poor 
Nelly (Nell Gwynne) starve." 

Chesterfield, Lord (1694-1773), English courtier: " Give 
the doctor a chair." 

Columbus, Christopher (1410-1506), Italian navigator: 
" Lord, into Thy hands I commit my spirit." 

Cowper, William (1731-1800), English poet: "Feel? I 
feel unutterable, unutterable despair. What does it signify? " 

Cromwell, Oliver (1599-1658), English statesman: "My 
desire is to make what haste I may to be gone." 

De Stael, Madame (1766-1817), French authoress: "I 
have loved my God, my father, and liberty." 

Eliot, George (1820-1880), English novelist: "Tell them 
[the doctors] I have a great pain in the left side." 

Franklin, Benjamin (1706-1790), American philosopher: 
" A dying man can do nothing easy." 

Frederick the Great of Prussia (1712-1786): "We are 
over the hill. We shall go better now." 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey (1539-1583), English navigator: 
" We are as near heaven by sea as by land." 

Gladstone, William Ewart (1809-1898), British statesman: 
"Amen." 

Goethe (1749-1832), German poet: "Open the shutters 

and let in more light." 

186 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Greeley, Horace (1811-1872), American journalist: "It 

is done." 

Hale, Nathan (1755-1776), American patriot: "I only re- 
gret that I have but one life to give to my country." 

Havelock, Henry (1795-1857), English general: " Tell my 
son to come and see how a Christian can die." 

Henry, Patrick (1736-1810), American orator and patriot: 
" Here is a book [the Bible] worth more than all others ever 
printed; yet it is my misfortune never to have found time to 
read it. It is now too late. I trust in the mercy of God." 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1809-1894), American poet and 
prose writer: "That is better, thank you." (To his son, who 
had just assisted him to his favorite chair.) 

Humboldt, Frederick (1769-1859), German savant and 
traveller: " How grand these rays! They seem to beckon earth 
to heaven." 

Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826), American statesman: "I 
resign my spirit to God and my daughter to my country." 

Josephine (1763-1814), Empress of France: " Isle of Elba! 
Napoleon ! " 

Julian (331-363), Roman Emperor: "0 Galilean, thou 
hast conquered! " 

Keats, John (1795-1821), English poet: " I feel the daisies 
growing over me." 

Latimer, Hugh (1472-1555), English reformer: "Be of 
good cheer, brother; we shall this day kindle such a torch in 
England as I trust shall never be extinguished." (To Nicholas 
Ridley, who was burned with him.) 

Lawrence, James (1781-1813), American naval officer: 
" Don't give up the ship." 

Louis XIII. of France (1601-1643): "There come to me 
thoughts that torment me." 

Louis XIV. of France (1638-1715): " I thought dying had 

been harder." 

187 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 

Louis XVIII. of France (1755-1824): " A king should die 
standing." 

Louise of Prussia (1776-1810): "lama Queen, but have 
not power to move my arms." 

Marie Louise (1791-1847), Empress of France: "I will 
not sleep; I wish to meet death wide awake." 

Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), Queen of France: "Fare- 
well, my children, forever; I go to your father." 

Marion, Francis (1732-1795), American general: "Thank 
God, I can lay my hand upon my heart and say that since I 
came to man's estate I have never intentionally done wrong to 
anyone." 

Moody, Dwight L. (1837-1899), American evangelist: 
" Earth is receding; heaven is approaching; God is calling me." 

Napoleon (1769-1821), Emperor of France: " Head of the 
army." 

Napoleon III. of France (1803-1873): "Were you at 
Sedan? " (To Dr. Conneau.) 

Nelson, Horatio (1758-1805), English admiral: " I thank 
God I have done my duty." 

Palmer, John (1740-1798), English actor: " There is an- 
other and better world." 

Pitt, William (1759-1806), English statesman: "Oh, my 
country, how I love thee ! " 

Raleigh, Sir Walter (1552-1618), English courtier and navi- 
gator: "Why dost thou not strike? Strike, man!" (To his 
executioner.) 

Roland, Madame (1754-1793), French lady: " O Liberty, 
how many crimes are committed in thy name! " 

Scott, Sir Walter (1771-1832), Scottish poet and novelist: 
" I feel as if I were to be myself again. God bless you all." 

Scott, Winfield (1786-1866), American general: "James, 

take good care of the horse." 

1 88 



WILLIAM McKIXLEY 

Sidney, Sir Philip (1622-1683), English patriot: " I would 
not change my joy for the empire of the world." 

Thurlow, Edward (1732-1806), English lawyer: " I'll be 
shot if I don't believe I'm dying! " 

Vane, Henry (1612-1662), English statesman: " Ten thou- 
sand deaths for me ere I stain the purity of my conscience." 

"Washington, George (1732-1799), American general and 
statesman: " It is well. I am about to die, and I look upon 
it with perfect resignation." 

Webster, Daniel (1782-1852), American statesman: "I 
still live." 

Wellington, Duke of (1769-1852), British general and 
statesman: "Yes, if you please." (To a servant asking if he 
would have some tea.) 

Wesley, John (1703-1791), English divine: "The best of 
all is, God is with us. Farewell." 

Wilson, Daniel (1778-1858), English theologian: " Sleep! 
I am asleep already; I am talking in my sleep." 

Wolfe, James (1726-1759), English general: "What, do 
they run already? " 



189 



Addendum 



Times-Mirror, Los Angeles, Gal. 

The President is dead. 

William McKinley is no more. 

The kindly heart of the good President is stilled forever. 

This is a superlative tragedy. It is the nation's loss — the 
world's loss; for humanity at large is the loser in the death of this 
great and noble man. 

To the American people, who loved him, and whom he loved, 
this sad and most pitiful taking-off comes with the shock of per- 
sonal bereavement. And it is a personal bereavement to all of 
us who are true Americans. He was our President and our 
friend — the friend of all. To no man has it ever been given to 
enjoy so fully, so completely, so unreservedly, the love, the confi- 
dence, the esteem, of his countrymen. 

It seems well-nigh impossible that we can be reconciled to this 
loss of our beloved Chief. The loss is irreparable, and the great 
heart of the nation feels that it is so. 

That William McKinley, of all men, should suffer death at the 
hands of an assassin seems a thing too monstrous for belief. If 
ever a good man lived upon this earth, it was he. It is not believ- 
able that he ever harbored a thought of ill against any man, or 
knowingly injured any person. 

But, while the public life of William McKinley has been one 
unbroken line of noble endeavor and superb achievement, it has 
been equalled by the sublime virtues of his private life. As the 
modest, manly citizen, the devoted husband, the patriotic Ameri- 
can, he was a model for all men. Nothing in human affairs could 
have been more touching than his devotion to the sweet but 
fragile woman who has been the sharer of his joys and his sorrows. 
To her, he was as the oak to the vine; the staff to the weary and 
wayworn traveller; the buoy of hope and strength to one buffeting 
with the sea. And it is one of the most touching phases of this 
terrible tragedy of the nation that he was her support and com- 
fort, even while he was passing through the valley of the shadow 
of death. " God's will, not ours, be done." No words uttered 
by a man with the touch of death already upon him could be more 
sublime. 

The American people are slow to anger, but they will not forget 
nor forgive this wanton and atrocious crime. 

190 




, yf . 






